NOTES AND QUERIES. 
14S 
however, every nodule found here that contains a fish, or even part of a fisli, 
for wliich reason tiicy ouglit to be opened on tlie s])ol, and it will be found that 
about 70 per eent. contain notlung of value. The fish here preserved are 
generally of a black colour. 
jVbout four miles south of Cromarty i.s the Burn of Eathie, a locality often 
visited by Miller. Just at the point where it enters the sea, and for one hundred 
yards nortii and south of the burn, on the shore, numbers of nodules may be 
found, btit 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 Belemniles, Ammonites, &e., which are also 
found on tiie sliorc in water-worn nodules. 
Erom Eathie 1 proceeded to Naikn, which is about nine miles west of Elgin, 
and is on the coast of the Moray Frith. Close to this town are Boath and 
Kingstep (luarries, in wliich may be found the remains of Bothriolejjts, Asfero- 
lejiix, &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 tlie rock at Seaterag. It is especially friable when wet ; but 
the npper portion of the rock is of a more compact and close- texture, and is 
much employed in the neighbourhood for builduig-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 diametei-, and in 
depth about a quarter of an inch are found in this rock. I could not, however, 
detect any traces of orgauie remains in them, and they appear frequently to be 
filled with a clayey material, which falls to pieces in laminre when taken out. 
From this place I visited Lethen Bar and Clune, inland places, about ten 
mOes 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 Ganu'ie, but nuich 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 woidd 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 lish, a few gentle blows with the hammer round the edge 
will cause it to split readily, disclosing, perhaps, a Ptericldlii/s, 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 symmetij as perfect as 
when first entombed in what was then a sandy but now a stony scpulclu-e — 
appearing more like a painting on stone than the remains of an extinct and ex- 
traordinary fish. 
Some species of fish found in the Old B,ed 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 foiuid in 
this state are the Biplacanthvs, Acanthodes, and Chcirncantkus ; all these genera 
of fishes possess very minute scales and large well-marked spines. Perhaps 
