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THE GEOLOGIST. 



ings, were some time ago saved from destruction by the care of the Rev. Hugh 

 Mitchell, from a road then in the course of being made in the village of Ferryden 

 in Forfarshire. These grits, or their representatives, pass upwards into an enor- 

 mously developed conglomerate, c, immediately east of the line of section. The 

 Fenalla range of hills is almost entirely composed of this ; and to the south it is 

 again upheaved in very great mass in the Garvock range, where, however, it is 

 considerably broken up by igneous irruptions. The grey, flaggy beds, with their 

 shales and thin-bedded flagstones, b, from which the Arbroath pavement has 

 been so largly obtained, are intercalated in the lower portions of this conglo- 

 merate; and although not so largely developed in the conglomerates of 

 Kincardineshire as in that of the county of Forfar, yet these flaggy beds are 

 not unrepresented there ; the fossiliferous deposits of Cauterland Den, which 

 the Rev. Hugh Mitchell's explorations have made so well known, belong to 

 these beds : they are also found in the rocks in the bay of Stonehaven, where 

 I have dug out pieces of shale similar to that of Cauterland Den, with Parka 

 decipiens, &c, here, however, they are only to be reached at low water. Those 

 beds are particularly interesting as the only part of either the Kincardineshire 

 or Forfarshire rocks that have proved undoubtedly, in some instances, richly 

 fossiliferous — to them belong the Farnell shales, with their beautifully preserved 

 small ganoid and other fishes, Crustacea, &c. The Yealing and Sidlaw shales, 

 which Mr. W. McNicoll's acute researches have proved to be almost equally rich 

 in ichthyic remains, the Leysmill flagstones, with their unequalled specimens 

 of Cephalaspis, the Carmyllie Quarries from which the finest of all the specimens 

 of Pterygotus Anglicus has been obtained, all form part of these intercalated 

 flagstones and shales. The conglomerate is again overlaid by, or rather passes 

 into, reddish, generally highly micaceous sandstones, d, from which occasional 

 specimens of Cephalaspis may he obtained ; and these again by dull coloured 

 deep red sandstones and shales, e, whose disintegration has again given the 

 peculiarly red colour to the soil of that part of Kincardineshire known as the 

 " How of the Mearns." These formations are by no means of an uniform depth, 

 but may in all reach a thickness of not less than three thousand feet. 



In concluding this short sketch of the Old Red Sandstones of Kincardine- 

 shire, I would point out a few of the localities where, these may be most 

 profitably examined. First in importance is the section by the coast ; the 

 well-defined strata in Stonehaven Bay, in almost every instance dipping at 

 nearly right angles from the coast, contain a record not even easily read. To 

 the south the true position of the conglomerate, as exposed in the cliffs along 

 by that fine old ruin, Dunnoton Castle, is perhaps more difficult to ascertain — 

 every ravine and rivulet along the coast would therefore require carefully to be 

 followed up, and wherever the rock may be exposed, its character, position, 

 and dip, if this can be observed, carefully taken down. The bed of the Carron 

 ought fully to be explored, and none of its small tributaries left unvisited, — the 

 railway-cuttings afford several fine sections. Following the coast-line to the 

 south-west, the bed of the stream falling into the sea, near by Katterline 

 Harbour, may contain much valuable information ; and lastly, the Bervie water, 

 although affording no continuous section, shows the whole series in detached 

 portions. All quarries should be visited, the sandstones and shales fully exa 

 mined, and, above all, the workmen encouraged to preserve any curious looking 

 markings that may be found. 



To the mere fossil-collector the Forfarshire and Kincardineshire rocks offer 

 an uninviting field, and many an hour's hard work will often yield barely a 

 recognizable organism ; but to the true geologist, an abundant return of pro- 

 lit able information may be found in studying the nature, sequence, and relation 

 of these rocks as they arc exhibited in the bold cliffs and picturesque ravines 

 along the coast. — Yours, &c, J. Toweie. 



