of Edinburgh, Session 1881-82. 
635 
this much, that Dr. Carpenter reports that its appearance is very 
eozooic, while later letters say “ exceedingly interesting.” 
Such are the essentials of its interest which induce me to lay 
before the Society these notes upon a substance of whose description 
it is evident that my share must lie only on the mineralogical side. 
While endeavouring to discover the bedding of the almost 
amorphous white marble, my eye was arrested by a dark streak, 
which promised some aid. Upon approaching it, it presented an 
appearance similar to what we have been assiduously taught to 
believe would be presented by a junk of the great sea-serpent. It 
also somewhat resembled the old “ boas ” worn by ladies, laid hori- 
zontally on a face of the marble; and it was altogether similar in 
appearance to the whale cutlets which are hung or stretched in the 
sun to dry, in the Faroe Islands. 
The first portion found lay imbedded in the marble, about 2 
feet from its surface. Its length was 16 \ feet, and its thickness 
4 to 5 inches. When found, I was carrying only a four-pound 
hammer ; but, upon Dr. Carpenter reporting “ high interest,” 
I returned to Sutherland with one of more earnest dimensions; 
and by removing the cover, found that in parts it extended, with 
almost unvarying thickness, into the rock for 3J feet. 
It lay in the rock in slightly wavy folds ; at one spot it threw off, 
at an angle of about 15°, an arm or process; this was about an inch 
narrower than its mean trunk, and of about 2 feet in length ; at 
another spot it threw off a short process, at right angles. 
Its exposed surface was much corroded by the weather, but its 
structure was unfolded thereby. That boldly displayed structure 
consisted of gently-plicated but very rough layers of a substance, 
which evidently was less soluble in rain-water than had been that 
whose removal left the layers protruding. 
The appearance of this exposed surface is precisely that of the 
representation of eozoon given by Carpenter, in the last edition 
of his work on the Microscope; and the colour is very much that 
of printer’s ink. When broken into, the rippled structure stands 
out in blue-black, upon a nearly white ground, which is mottled with 
granules of yellowish-grey. Occasional patches of greenish-yellow 
granular precious-serpentine occur; there occasionally are nodules 
of the latter the size of the fist, and this sometimes is white. 
