belong to the great flagstone division of the
formation. I found the dry-stone fences on Mr. Garson's property still
richer in detached fossil fragments than the cliffs; but there are few
erections in the island that do not inclose in their walls portions of
the organic. We find ichthyolite remains in the flagstones laid bare
along the way-side,--in every heap of road-metal,--in the bottom of
every stream,--in almost every cottage and fence. Orkney is a land of
defunct fishes, and contains in its rocky folds more individuals of the
waning ganoid family than are now to be found in all the existing seas,
lakes, and rivers of the world. I enjoyed in a snug upper room a
delectable night's rest, after a day of prime exercise, prolonged till
it just touched on toil, and again experienced, on looking out in the
morning on the wide flat basin around, a feeling somewhat akin to
wonder, that Orkney should possess a scene at once so extensive and so
exclusively inland.

Towards mid-day I walked on to the parish manse of Sandwick, armed with
a letter of introduction to its inmate, the Rev. Charles Clouston,--a
gentleman whose descriptions of the Orkneys, in the very complete and
tastefully written Guide-Book of the Messrs. Anderson of Inverness, and
of his own parish in the "Statistical Account of Scotland," had, both
from the high literary ability and the amount of scientific acquirement
which they exhibit, rendered me desirous to see. I was politely
received, though my visit must have been, as I afterwards ascertained,
at a rather inconvenient time. It was now late in the week, and the
coming Sabbath was that of the communion in the parish; but Mr. Clouston
obligingly devoted to me at least an hour, and I found it a very
profitable one. He showed me a collection of flags, with which he
intended constructing a grotto, and which contained numerous specimens
of Coccosteus, that he had exposed to the weather, to bring out the fine
blue efflorescence,--a phosphate of iron which forms on the surface of
the plates. They reminded me, from their peculiar style of coloring, and
the grotesqueness of their forms, of the blue figuring on pieces of
buff-colored china, and seemed to be chiefly of one species, very
abundant in Orkney, the _Coccosteus decipiens_. We next walked out to
see a quarry in the neighborhood of the manse, remarkable for containing
in immense abundance the heads of Dipteri,--many of them in a good state
of keeping, with a