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60 “© OLD RED SANDSTONE.” 
be attained to, I would caution myself and all others 
against prepossession, and endeavour to keep the 
question alive, rather than hurry it to a fancied 
settlement. Our ignorance as to the occurrence 
of piscine remains, &c. in the lime, whilst they occur 
probably in the other rocks, is sufficient proof of our 
present incapacity to decide this point. 
Taking the catalogue in the mass, there is as 
might be imagined, a preponderance as to quantity, 
in favour of the radiated animals, and especially 
the crinoidee and solid zoophytes or corals, but 
there is a much greater variety of forms to be found 
among the conchifera and mollusca. Zoophytes 
predominate largely in the lime, crinotdee in the 
slate, and probably in the sandstone also. 
SANDSTONE. 
Notwithstanding that the prevailing rock of our 
district is so generally found to belong to the class 
of slates, there are a few other kinds of strata con- 
stituting a part of the general mass, and of these, 
the “old red sandstone” occupies a considerable 
bulk taken aggregately. Its masses are usually seen 
to exist as beds and hills of inconsiderable area and 
magnitude, and found I believe to extend to no great 
distance from the coast. They present a variety of 
aspects in consequence of difference in colour, and 
manner in which the fragments are conjoined. A 
common colour of our sandstones is a pink, or flesh 
colour, a great deal also is grey, or bluish grey, so 
as to wear the appearance of common limestone in 
bourhood, the species themselves do not in such cases appear 
much affected by the proximity, but are in nearly all cases dis- 
tinct. Those in the slate at Berry Head seem all of distinct 
kinds from the species found in limestone, which is just at hand. 
Those in the slate at Sandy Cove, perhaps are not all separate 
from the limestone fossils. 
