The Old Red Sandstone; or, New Walks in an Old Field — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Old Red Sandstone; or, New Walks in an Old Field
John Stuart Mill · en
The Classifying Principle and its Uses.--Three Groups
of Ichthyolites among the Organisms of the Lower Old
Red Sandstone.--Peculiarities of the Third Group.--Its
Varieties.--Description of the _Cheiracanthus_.--Of two unnamed
Fossils of the same Order.--Microscopic Beauty of these
ancient Fish.--Various Styles of Ornament which obtain among
them.--The Molluscs of the Formation.--Remarkable chiefly for
the Union of modern with ancient Forms which they exhibit.--Its
Vegetables.--Importance and Interest of the Record which it
furnishes, 79-94
CHAPTER VI.
The Lines of the Geographer rarely right Lines.--These last,
however, always worth looking at when they occur.--Striking
Instance in the Line of the Great Caledonian Valley.--Indicative
of the Direction in which the Volcanic Agencies have
operated.--Sections of the Old Red Sandstone furnished by the
granitic Eminences of the Line.--Illustration.--Lias of the Moray
Frith.--Surmisings regarding its original Extent.--These lead to
an exploratory Ramble.--Narrative.--Phenomena exhibited in the
Course of half an Hour's Walk.--The little Bay.--Its Strata and
their Organisms, 95-108
CHAPTER VII.
Further Discoveries of the Ichthyolite Beds.--Found in one
Locality under a Bed of Peat.--Discovered in another beneath
an ancient Burying-ground.--In a third underlying the Lias
Formation.--In a fourth overtopped by a still older Sandstone
Deposit.--Difficulties in ascertaining the true Place of a
newly-discovered Formation.--Caution against drawing too hasty
Inferences from the mere Circumstance of Neighborhood.--The
Writer receives his first Assistance from without.--_Geological
Appendix_ of the Messrs. Anderson, of Inverness.--Further
Assistance from the Researches of Agassiz.--Suggestion.--Dr.
John Malcolmson.--His extensive Discoveries in Moray.--He
submits to Agassiz a Drawing of the _Pterichthys_.--Place of the
Ichthyolites in the Scale at length determined.--Two distinct
Platforms of Being in the Formation to which they belong, 109-124
CHAPTER VIII.
Upper Formations of the Old Red Sandstone.--Room enough, for each
and to spare.--Middle, or Cornstone Formation.--The Cephalaspis
its most characteristic Organism.--Description.--The Den of
Balruddery richer in the Fossils of this middle Formation than
any other Locality yet discovered.--Various Contemporaries
of the _Cephalaspis._--Vegetable Impressions.--Gigantic
Crustacean.--_Seraphim._--Ichthyodorulites.--Sketch of the
Geology of Forfarshire.--Its older Deposits of the Cornstone
Formation.--The Quarries of Carmylie.--Their Vegetable and Animal
Remains.--The Upper Formation.--Wide Extent of the Fauna and
Flora of the earlier Formations.--Probable Cause, 125-150