168 
OLD RED SANDSTONE. 
nate in minute hooks, that remind one of 
the young tendrils of the pea when they 
begin to turn. In yet another there are 
marks of the ligneous fibre : wdien examined 
by the glass, it resembles a bundle of horse¬ 
hairs lying stretched in parallel lines; and 
in this specimen alone have I found aught 
approaching to proof of a terrestrial origin. 
The deposition seems to have taken place 
far from land ; and this lignite, if in reality 
such, had probably drifted far ere it at 
length became heavier than the supporting 
fluid and sank. It is by no means rare to 
find fragments of wood that have been borne 
out to sea by the gulf stream from the shores 
of Mexico or the West Indian islands, 
stranded on the rocky coasts of Orkney 
and Shetland.”* 
The impressions of marine vegetables are 
not very com mon amidst the layers of 
zoophytes : whilst hammering the old slate 
rocks of the Devonian system, thousands of 
feet beneath the coal, w e have been occa¬ 
sionally startled by the sharp sculpture of a 
* Old Red Sandstone, by Hugh Miller, p. 100. 
