354 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
E D 
B out-i rop. 
Surface 
C 
6 
5 
8 
7 
F 
A. Hole containins the frnj. B. to C. Extent of surface shown in Mr. Ramsay's sketch. B. to E. 
Continuation of surface to show outcrop ol "parting" represented by the added dotted line D. F. 
1. Little splint coal. 2. Rough coal ; several beds of coal, shale, freestone intervening ; also a seam 
of ironstone. 3. Main coal, with freestone rock intervening. 4. Little splint coal, under which freestone 
pavement, in which the hole A occuired. This hole was 10 inches long, by about 3 inches wide. 5, 6, 
7, 8. Seams of coal and various other strata below the freestone in which the frog was found, 
instances— height from A to surface C B 90 yards. From A to D about 400 yards. From A to the 
coal-seam No. 4 about 2 feet. 
In the diagram given above, which has Ijeen faithfully reduced from the original 
sketch forwarded to us, we have dded the dotted line D. F. Now, we accept 
the statement of Mr. Ramsay that there were no Assures or "cutters" of a 
vertical character; but we know that forty -two feet of rock could not exist with- 
out many intervening planes of bedding ; and looking at the lengthened form of 
the cavity, it appeared to us, at the first glance, to lie in one of the planes of 
bedding, and on drawing the dotted line D. F. this becomes jjrominently evident. 
This line of bedding will outcrop beyond B. at the surface, at a point we 
will call 1). Now, springs and the water of rain-falls constantly percolate 
along these lines of bedding ; and, although it would be very difficult to get frog- 
spawn down vertically into such a cavity as A, it would be very easy to do so along 
the line of bedding D. F., and it seems to us that this is the easiest and most natural 
explanation. At all events, if this be not the right explanation, the frog was a 
recent one ; and as an animal of recent form cannot be co-eval with the coal-rock, 
we must stOl search among natural causes for the solutiou. 
Geologt or THE NoKTH Staffoedshiee Coal-fields. — " Sir, — For the 
information of your correspondent in the June number of the Geologist, I beg 
to inform him that in addition to the coloured maps, the Government Geological 
Survey has just published two sheets of Horizontal Sections (Nos. 41 and 42), 
across the North Statibrdshire Coal-field, accompanied by short explanatory 
memoirs, which may be had either with, or without, the sheets of sections. — E. H. 
Cuttings on the Nairn and Keith Kailvfay. — The railway between Nairn 
and Keith, establishing through communication from Inverness to London, has just 
been comjileted, and the locomotive, for the first time, has crossed the Sjjey, 
and inaugurated a new era in the Highlands. The following description has 
been taken from the In verness Courier : — " With regard to the district through 
which the line of railway passes, it is a great improvement upon that lying around 
tlie present coach-road. The rise frotn Elgin is very soft and beautiful, giving a 
fine idea of the fertility and amenity of Morayshire. The valley of the Spey is 
also very attractive ; the hills are lofty and majestic ; the trees well-grown and 
varied ; while such sjjots as the country-seat of Mr. Wharton Dutt', give it that 
asjject of wealth and comfort which we Highlanders have from the earliest times 
associated with the " laigh land of Moray." From the Spey upwards to the 
Gorge of Mulben, the railway passes through a defile in which a wild Highland 
burn winds from side to side, crossing repeatedly underneath the railway, and 
