The old red sandstone; or, New walks in an old field To which is appended a series of geological papers, read before the Royal physical society of Edinburgh . od. I saw one flagstone, in particular, so covered withthese reticulated patches, and so abundant, besides, in vegeta-ble impressions of both the irregularly furrowed and grass-weed-looking class, that I could compare it to only the bottomof a ditch beside a hedge, matted with withered grass,strewed with blackened twigs of the hawthorn, and mottledwith detached masses of the eggs of the frog.* All the largervegetables are resolved into a
The old red sandstone; or, New walks in an old field To which is appended a series of geological papers, read before the Royal physical society of Edinburgh . od. I saw one flagstone, in particular, so covered withthese reticulated patches, and so abundant, besides, in vegeta-ble impressions of both the irregularly furrowed and grass-weed-looking class, that I could compare it to only the bottomof a ditch beside a hedge, matted with withered grass,strewed with blackened twigs of the hawthorn, and mottledwith detached masses of the eggs of the frog.* All the largervegetables are resolved into as pure a coal as the plants ofthe Coal Measures themselves — the kind of data, doubtless,on which unfortunate coal speculators have often earned dis-appointment at large expense. None of the vegetablesihemselves, however, in the least resemble those of the car-boniferous period. The animal remains, though less numerous, are moreinteresting. They are identical with those of the Den ofBalruddery. I saw, in the possession of the superintend-ent of the quarries, a well-preserved head of the Cephalas-* See Note I, Plate XII. 142* PLATE The aboTe engraving is from a specimen in the private collection ofLord Kumaii-d, at Rossie Priory. THE OLD EED SANDSTONE. 143 pis Lyellii. The crescent-shaped horns were wanting,and the outline a little obscure; but the eyes were bettermarked than in almost any other specimen I have yetseen, and the circular star-like tubercles which roughenthe large occipital buckler, to which the creature owes itsnam^, were tolerably well defined. I was shown the headof another individual of the same species in the centre of alarge slab, and nothing could be more entire than the osseous plate still retained the original brownish-whitehue of the bone, and its radiated porous texture ; and thesharp crescent-shaped horns were as sharply defined as dur-ing the lifetime of the strangely organized creatiue whichthey had defended. In bot
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