The Old Red Sandstone; or, New Walks in an Old Field
John Stuart Mill · en
[Footnote AM: The Upper Old Red Sandstones of Moray were ascertained
to be fossiliferous at nearly the same time by Mr. Martin, of the
Anderson Institution, Elgin. There is a mouldering conglomerate
precipice termed the _Scat-Craig_, about four miles to the south of
the town, more abundant in remains than perhaps any of the other
deposits of the formation yet discovered; and in this precipice
Mr. Martin first commenced his labors in the lied Sandstone of the
district, and found it a mine of wonders. It is a place of singular
interest--a rock of sepulchres; and its teeth, scales, and single
bones occur in a state of great entireness; though, ere the deposit
was formed, the various ichthyolites whose remains it contains seem
to have been broken up, and their fragments scattered. Accumulations
of larger and smaller pebbles alternate in the strata; and the
bulkier bones and teeth are found invariably among the bulkier
pebbles, thus showing that they were operated upon by the same laws
of motion which operated on the inorganic contents of the deposit.
At a considerably later period the fossils of the upper group were
detected in the precipitous and romantic banks of the Findhorn, by
Dr. Malcolmson, of Madras, when prosecuting his discoveries of the
organisms of the lower formation. He found them, also, though in less
abundance, in a splendid section exhibited in the Burn of Lethen, a
rivulet of Moray, and yet again in the neighborhood of Altyre. The
Rev. Mr. Gordon, of Birnie, and Mr. Robertson, of Inverugie, have
been also discoverers in the district. To the geological labors
of Mr. Patrick Duff, of Elgin, in the same field, I have already
had occasion incidentally to refer. The patient inquiries of this
gentleman have been prosecuted for years in all the formations of the
province, from the Weald of Linksfield, with its peculiar lacustrine
remains--lignites, minute fresh-water shells, and the teeth, spines,
and vertebræ of fish and saurians--down to the base of the Old Red
Sandstone, with its _Coccostei_, _Dipteri_, and _Pterichthyes_. His
acquaintance with the organisms of the _Scat-Craig_ is at once more
extensive and minute than that of, perhaps, any other geologist;
and his collection of them very valuable, representing, as it does,
a formation of much interest, still little known. Mr. Duff is at
present engaged on a volume descriptive of the Geology of the
province of Moray, a district extensively explored of late years, and
abundant in its distinct groups of organisms, but of which general
readers have still much to learn; and from no one could they learn
more regarding it than from Mr. Duff. It is still only a few months
since the Upper Old Red Sandstones of the southern districts of
Scotland were found to be fossiliferous; and the writer is chiefly
indebted for his acquaintance with their organisms to a tradesman of
Berwickshire, Mr. William Stevenson, of Dunse, who, on perusing some