NOTES AND QUERIES, 



143 



however, every nodule found here that contains a fish, or even part of a fish, 

 for which reason they ought to be opened on the spot, and it will be found that 

 about 70 per cent, contain nothing of value. The fish here preserved are 

 generally of a black colour. 



About four miles south of Cromarty is the Burn of Eathie, a locality often 

 visited by Miller. Just at the point where it enters the sea, and for one hundred 

 yards north and south of the burn, on the shore, numbers of nodules may be 

 found, but of a much harder material and of much larger size than those we 

 have described. These generally contain plates of Coccostei, rarely other 

 species ; but occasionally a tolerable specimen of Gli/ptolepis may be opened. 

 These nodules are very much waterworu. A little farther to the south are the 

 Lias beds, containing numbers of Belenmiies, Ammonites, &c., which are also 

 found on the shore in water-worn nodules. 



From Eathie I proceeded to Nairn, which is about nine miles west of Elgin, 

 and is on the coast of the Moray Erith. Close to this town are Boath and 

 Kingstep quarries, in which may be found the remains of Bothriolepis, Astero- 

 lepis, &c., but in the most fragmentary form — all in detached pieces, separately 

 embedded. The matrix is of a very loose granular friable nature ; in colour 

 very similar to the rock at Scatcrag. It is especially friable when wet ; but 

 the upper portion of the rock is of a more compact and close texture, and is 

 much employed in the neighbourhood for buildmg-purposes. This upper stra- 

 tum contains no fossils, although numerous cavities, round and oval in form, 

 of various sizes, from half an inch to four or five inches in diameter, and in 

 depth about a quarter of an inch are found in this rock. I could not, however, 

 detect any traces of organic remains in them, and they appear frequently to be 

 filled with a clayey material, which falls to pieces in laminae when taken out. 



Erom this place I visited Lethen Bab, and Clune, inland places, about ten 

 miles from the sea at Nairn, the nearest road being through some splendid 

 forests of Scotch fir and beech, in which are presented some of the most beau- 

 tiful and variously coloured fungi I ever have seen ; some are of large size (six 

 or eight inches in diameter), and their fine pink, orange spotted with white, 

 purple, and other colours have a beautiful appearance in contrast with the 

 grass and green bog-moss in which they lie in profusion. A ride round about 

 this district is delightful at the fall of summer. 



The fishes of Lethen Bar and Clune are enclosed in nodules of the same cha- 

 racter as at the other localities, but of a harder and more compact texture, and 

 nearly round, similar to those of Gamrie, but much larger, and having a tinge 

 of red, produced by oxide of iron. They are embedded in great plenty in a 

 clayey material of a brownish-red colour ; it would be a mistake, however, to 

 suppose every one to contain a fish, or even a portion of one, although frag- 

 ments are in much greater profusion than whole specimens. When a nodule 

 contains an entire fish, a few gentle blows with the hammer round the edge 

 will cause it to split readily, disclosing, perhaps, a FtericUhys, with its arms 

 extended, and scales of red, blue, and white in brilliant contrast with the 

 matrix — entombed for ages upon ages, yet retaining its symmetry as perfect as 

 when first entombed in what was then a sandy but now a stony sepulchre — 

 appearing more like a painting on stone than the remains of an extinct and ex- 

 traordinary fish. 



Some species of fi.sh found in the Old Bed Sandstone are almost always (the 

 exceptions being very rare) in a greatly distorted state, this being probably 

 caused either by the struggles of the animal, the contortions of the body after 

 death, or by the action of the sea on the sand after the decomposition of the 

 internal parts of the fish had taken place. The fishes most generally found in 

 this state are the Diplacanthus, Acanthodes, and Cheimcanthus ; all these genera 

 of fishes possess very minute scales and large well-marked spines. Perhaps 



