318 PROCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 26, 



three or four critical fossils, that the Lower and Middle Oolite were 

 represented by beds to the north of Portree harbour, and that the beds 

 about the mouth of Loch Sligachan and at Broadford were the lowest 

 of the fossiliferous series. In 1851 Prof. Edward Forbes ascertained 

 that certain strata at Loch Staffin, supposed by Sir E. Murchison, 

 from the examination of a few imperfect fossils, to be of the age of 

 the Wealden, really belonged to the upper part of the Middle Oolite. 

 No addition worthy of record was made to our knowledge of these 

 beds in Skye till 1858, when a paper appeared from the pen of Prof. 

 Geikie (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xiv. p. 1), on the Lias basin 

 south of the Bed Mountains in Skye, and crossing the peninsula 

 from Broadford Bay and Lussay to Loch Slapin. He showed that in 

 this basin, which may be said to include as outliers the Scalpa and 

 Pabba beds, there existed the Lower Lias and the lower portion of 

 the Middle Lias — a conclusion fully borne out by the evidence derived 

 from 30 species of fossils collected by him, when carefully correlated 

 with those of England by Dr. Wright of Cheltenham, well known 

 for his great skill in this branch of palaeontology. The work thus 

 far done indicated clearly the line of inquiry to be pursued by 

 observers who should follow. It remained to determine whether 

 the Middle Lias had a greater development in the northward range 

 of the beds, whether the Upper Lias existed, what were the extent 

 and relations of the Oolitic beds, and to procure a full suite of 

 fossils in order more surely to fix the various " horizons " and to 

 correlate the whole series in a satisfactory manner with the like 

 beds in England and in other countries. 



"With these objects mainly in view, I visited Skye for the first time 

 in June 1869; and during that visit, and others in the three succeed- 

 ing years, I made the observations and collected the fossils which I 

 have now the honour to lay before the Society. The specific deter- 

 mination of the fossils has been made by Mr. Balph Tate, F.G.S., 

 well known to geologists for his accurate acquaintance with the 

 fauna of the Jurassic beds ; and a Report from him regarding them 

 is appended to the present paper. The fossils were ' submitted to 

 and named by him from time to time ; and before drawing up the 

 Report he had an opportunity of inspecting many of the sections, 

 both in Skye and Raasay, while accompanying me during part of my 

 last visit, in June 1872 ; so that he has been enabled to form a more 

 accurate estimate of the relations between the position of the fossils 

 in these beds and that which they occupy in the more perfectly 

 developed series in the magnificent cliffs and extensive moors of 

 East Yorkshire, with which he has been long familiar, and in 

 which the fossils are much more abundant and in far better pre- 

 servation. 



Range of the Beds. — Separated from the valley of Strath by the 

 three great ridges of the syenite mountains, the calcareous strata 

 emerge again near Sconser, at the entrance of Loch Sligachan ; they 

 rise to the height of several hundred feet on the north-west front 

 of the syenitic mountain Glamaig. Two miles from the head of the 

 loch they become overlain by the igneous rocks which form the floor 



