ue to burn for several months. 10. As we
passed through the works, on our way to the clay, we observed a sort of
reservoir, into which the clay, after being freed from its impurities,
had been run in a liquid state; the water had evaporated, and the drying
clay had cracked in every direction. Here we find its counterpart in
this large mass of stone; only the clay here, mixed with a portion of
lime is petrified, and the fissures filled up with carbonate of lime;
thus forming the septaria, or cement stone. We have dressed a specimen
of it for our guide, who has a friend that will polish it, when the dark
Lias will be strikingly contrasted with the white lime, and form rather
a pretty piece of natural mosaic. 11. Coming to a simple piece of
machinery for removing fragments of shale and stone from the clay, we
examined some of the bits so rejected, and found what we had no doubt
were fish-scales. 12. We have yet to notice certain long slender bodies,
outwardly brown, but inwardly nearly black, resembling whip-cord in
size. Are we to regard these as specimens of a fucus, perhaps the
_filum_, or allied to it, which is known in some places by the
appropriate name of sea-laces? 13. Passing on to the office, we were
shown a chop of wood that had been found in the clay, and was destined
for the Banff Museum. It is about eighteen inches in length, and half as
much in breadth; and although evidently water-worn, yet we could count
between twenty-five and thirty concentric rings on one of its ends,
which not only enabled us to form some conjecture of its age previous to
its overthrow, but also justified us in referring it to the coniferae of
the _vorwelt_, or ancient world."

Mr. Longmuir makes the following shrewd remarks, in answering the
question, "Whether have we here a mass of Lias clay, as originally
deposited, or has it resulted from the breaking up of Lias-shale?" "The
former alternative," says Mr. Longmuir, "we have heard, has been
maintained; but we are inclined to adopt the latter, and that for the
following reasons: 1. This clay, judging from other localities, is not
_in situ_, but has every appearance of having been precipitated into a
basin in the gneiss on which it rests, having apparently under it,
although it is impossible to say to what extent, a bed of comminuted
shells. 2. The fossils are all fragmentary and water-worn. This is
especially the case with regard to the Belemnites, the pieces averaging
from one to two