400 



Prof. J. W. Judd. 



[Dec. 10, 



of Lossiemouth and Spynie, consisting of white or pale-yellow sand- 

 stone, containing occasional black particles composed of iron and 

 manganese oxides. The sandstones of this pit are generally much 

 coarser in grain than those at Lossiemouth and Spynie, and they some- 

 times even pass into a grit. In some of the beds, particles of fel- 

 spar occur in such profusion as almost to cause the rock to assume 

 the appearance of an " arkose." That these rocks really belong to 

 the Reptiliferous Sandstone has been confirmed by the finding, up 

 to the present time, of no less than six skeletons of reptiles, and 

 by the total absence from them of the " Old-Red " fish-remains. 



The Reptiliferous Sandstone, both of the coast ridge and of the 

 Quarry wood ridge, not unfrequently contains scattered pebbles of 

 quartz ; but at the " Cutties' Hillock Quarry," as the new pit is now 

 called, this feature is more strikingly exhibited, and such quartz- 

 pebbles become very abundant, especially in some of the lower beds. 

 As the excavations were carried downwards, indeed, the coarse sand- 

 stone was seen passing into a conglomerate, called by the workmen 

 the " pebbly-post." This bed of conglomerate was found to be from 

 3 feet 6 inches to 4 feet thick, and, it being considered desirable to 

 determine if other courses of freestone fit for building purposes under- 

 lie the " pebbly-post," a trial-shaft was opened at the bottom of the 

 quarry. 



It was discovered in this way that the " pebbly-post," which in its 

 lower portion becomes more perfectly conglomeratic, and contains 

 pebbles of white and purple quartz up to the size of the fist, rests on 

 beds of pink and red sandstones, very finely laminated, and exhibiting 

 evidence of much false-bedding. These beds are strikingly different in 

 character from the coarse-grained, white sandstones lying above the 

 "pebbly-post," in which the bedding is usually indistinct and im- 

 perfect. The stone lying below the conglomerate was found to be 

 unsuited for building purposes, and the trial- shaft, after being carried 

 to the depth of 13 feet in the bottom-rock, was abandoned; very 

 fortunately, however, the last blast which was fired in it revealed a 

 remarkably fine specimen of Holoptychius, which has been identified 

 by Dr. Traquair as H. nobilissimus, and is now in the Elgin Museum. 



It unfortunately happened that no careful geological study was 

 made of the beds exposed in the trial-shaft at the time when it was 

 open ; but I was able, with the assistance of Mr. J. Gordon Phillips, 

 and of Mr. Watts, the very intelligent lessee of the quarry, aided by 

 an inspection of the materials thrown out, to substantiate the above 

 facts and to add the following details : — 



The red and finely-laminated sandstones of the Upper Old Red 

 Sandstone are directly overlain by the bed of quartzose conglomerate. 

 This latter bed, which is from 3 feet 6 inches to 4 feet in thickness, 

 contains fewer and smaller pebbles in its upper part, and thus 



