1885.] On the Reptiliferous Sandstone of Elgin. 403 



glomerate, very similar to that which occurs in the Poikilitic of the 

 west coast of Scotland, and of many parts of England. ■ This, by 

 the gradual diminution in the size and number of the pebbles, passes 

 occasionally up insensibly into a coarse grit, containing scattered 

 quartz pebbles, and, finally, into the very fine-grained white or yellow 

 sandstone which constitutes the bulk of the formation. 



In the whole of this deposit, organic remains are very sparsely dis- 

 tributed. The extensive sea-cliffs and shore-reefs of the coast ridge 

 have not yielded a single specimen, nor have any fossils been found in 

 similar situations in Sutherland. Many of the largely worked quarries 

 have proved equally barren. Several quarries in immediate proximity 

 to one another have, however, yielded footprints, and a single band 

 of soft rock in the Lossiemouth Quarries, situated at the depth of 

 about 100 feet from the top of the sandstone series, has yielded many 

 remains of Stagonolepis, Hyperodapedon, and Telerpeton. It is not 

 improbable that it is a bed on about the same horizon which has 

 yielded Telerpeton, Hyperodapedon, and Geratodus at Spynie, and 

 Stagonolepis and Dasygnathus at Eindrassie. The new quarry at 

 Cutties' Hillock, however, is certainly opened in beds lower in the 

 series, and, indeed, near its base. The only form up to the present 

 found in this lower division which is common to it and the higher 

 strata is Hyperodapedon, but the lower beds have also yielded a 

 Dinosaur, a Dicynodont, and a new species of Lacertian. There are 

 good grounds for anticipating further important discoveries in this 

 part of the series, as large quantities of stone are now being taken 

 from the quarry in which it is exposed. 



The beds of the Reptiliferous Sandstone are often seen to be traversed 

 vertically by masses of a hard quartzite-like rock, which, are known to 

 the quarrymen as " keys." Such masses are seen rising through the 

 sandstones in the sea-cliffs, and in many of the quarries, where, being 

 unfit for building purposes, they are either avoided in the quarrying 

 operations, or are broken up to serve as road-metal. A key of this 

 kind is present in the quarry at Cutties' Hillock. Microscopic exami- 

 nation of these quartzite-like masses shows them to consist of the 

 ordinary white or yellow sandstone, in which silica has been deposited 

 in the form of quartz upon and between the individual grains. As 

 in the case of the " crystallised sandstones," and many quartzites, 

 the secondary silica is in crystallographic continuity with the quartz 

 grains on which it is deposited ; this is clearly shown when thin 

 sections of the rock are examined by polarised light, the orientations 

 of the original and the secondary quartz, as exhibited by their optical 

 characters, being thereby rendered manifest. 



Overlying the Reptiliferous Sandstone is the very remarkable cal- 

 careous and siliceous rock, known as the " Cherty rock of Stotfield," 

 the peculiar characters of which have been already indicated. At 



