1888-89.] The Duke of Argyll on Bodies of Organic Origin. 51 
might he due to vegetable rather than to animal life. The main 
objection and difficulty was that the ovate or capsule-like rings were 
almost always unconnected with any stalk or stem. One specimen, 
however, had an appearance of being so connected, whilst another 
suggested the idea of straight linear stalks like those of some kinds 
of reed. There was yet one other specimen that caught my eye for 
a moment among a great number of fragments, which I saw at once 
was in itself the most distinct and definite form of all, but which, as 
not suiting the interpretation which was then preoccupying my mind, 
and as not suggesting any other, I did not pick up or preserve at 
the time. This now turns out to be one of the most instructive of 
all, and it has fortunately been preserved — only because the recol- 
lection of it came back to my memory after some days, and on 
revisiting the spot I found it, and have brought it here to-day. 
At my invitation, the place was visited first by Mr Hill, the 
officer of the Geological Survey, who is now employed in mapping 
the strata towards the lower end of Loch Fyne ; and at a subse- 
quent date by my distinguished friend, Dr Geikie, the Director- 
General of the Survey, who very kindly came to Inveraray for the 
purpose of examining the rock. Both of these gentlemen doubted, as 
they well might, my idea that they were of vegetable origin ; and 
both, as the alternative, ascribed them to mineral concretions, such 
as pyrites, or clay balls, drawn out into ovate and linear forms by 
the effect of shearing or slipping movements of the strata over each 
other. 
Several features in these ring-like and oval stains, as well as some 
arguments derived from other considerations, impressed me with the 
belief that this afforded no satisfactory solution of the problem. In 
the first place, the idea of little balls of clay having been formed in 
immense numbers on a sandy shore, and of their having been again 
and again re-formed so as to be buried in every layer of the deposit, 
seemed to be a purely theoretical idea, and not a little fanciful. In 
the second place, such balls would not afford, even when sheared 
and flattened, the tube-like sections in the form of oval-rings which 
have to be accounted for. In the third place, mineral concretions, 
and especially sulphides of iron in many forms, are very common 
throughout all our other rocks, and yet in none of these have similar 
appearances been produced. In the fourth place, there are certain 
