NOTES AND QUERIES. 
145 
of our eminent geologists liavc of late been disposed to regard this rock at 
LossicHinuth as not l)eiiig ))art of tlu; Old Jied Sandstone series, but as being 
of tlic Triassic jjeriod, 1 sliould much like to know whctlicr the Dura Dan 
sandstone is to be eonsidcred of tlie like age, instead of what it was lately su])- 
posed to be, the u])per old red ; and if it would be probabh;, or possible, to find 
the several species of the black beautifully preserved fishes, or any of them, in 
cither the upper or lower part of the strata, containing the bones and scutes, at 
Lossiemouth, or vice verm at Dura Den, the white bones with the black fishes ? 
This lias somewhat puzzled nic : the sandstoues appear to me to be precisely 
the same, but the fossils at present known arc totally different. In the Elgin 
Museum are some fine slabs, containing boues of Stagonolepis and Uyperoda- 
iwdon, from Lossiemouth. 
Tynet Burn fish-bed is about three miles east of Fochabers, which latter is 
a few miles eastward of Elgin, on the east bank of the river Spcy. The fish- 
bed lies about thirty feet above the burn. The fishes found there are for the 
most part iu an excclleut state of preservation, and are of several species. 
They arc fouud in flatter nodules than at the other localities, and are of a light 
greenish grey colour. These nodules are imbedded in a greyish clayey marl, 
from which they may be taken out in great numbers. They vary in size from 
half an inch to a foot in diameter ; one half of them not containing more than 
a mere scale or two, especially the large ones. Some, however, contain very 
fine and perfect specimens ; and in the very small nodules are found that extremely 
minute fish — the smallest of the Old Hed fishes — the Acantliodes jnisilliis ; but 
I have sometimes opened above twenty without finding any trace of a fish. 
However, iu some of the smallest, not larger than a shiUiug, I have found a 
bcautifid little fisli, less than half an inch long, with its characteristic spines 
beautifully preserved. The average lengtli of this species is about one inch 
and a half. On opening the nodule tlie fishes appear in beautiful contrast with 
the matrix, being white, red, and blue in colour, similar to those of Lethenbar. 
One of the rarest fish here is the PferichtJii/s, at least I found it so, for I 
obtained only one or two fragments. The same also with the Coccostem : this 
fish-bed is now nearly worked out, His Grace the Duke of Richmond iiaviug 
lately had a party of labourers engaged in laying open a large section of it, 
and very few specimens are now to be obtained. There is a bed lower dowai 
the stream, kno\ra as the " Coceosteus-bed but few specimens have been 
obtained from it there. 
The nodules at Tynet have frequently bands of crystallized calcspar running 
across iu several directions, sometimes only in one, right across the nodule, 
causing it often to break in many places (see lign. 1). Many of these nodules 
Lign. 1. — Nodulo from Tynet, with seams of calcspar. 
are found in the bed broken in two or three places, lying from half an inch to 
six inches from it counterparts (see lign. 2). This is another reason for open- 
ing the nodules on the spot as they are dug out, otherwise, perhaps, you will 
VOL. til. T 
