Chapter VI

Organisms of the Boulder-clay not unequivocal--First Impressions of
the Boulder-clay--Difficulty of accounting for its barrenness of
Remains--Sir Charles Lyell's reasoning--A Fact to the
contrary--Human Skull dug from a Clay-bank--The Author's Change of
Belief respecting Organic Remains of the Boulder-clay--Shells from
the Clay at Wick--Questions respecting them settled--Conclusions
confirmed by Mr. Dick's Discoveries at Thurso--Sir John Sinclair's
Discovery of Boulder-clay Shells in 1802--Comminution of the Shells
illustrated--_Cyprina islandica_--Its Preservation in larger
Proportions than those of other Shells accounted for--Boulder-clays
of Scotland reformed during the existing Geological Epoch--Scotland
in the Period of the Boulder-clay "merely three detached groups of
Islands"--Evidence of the Subsidence of the Land in
Scotland--Confirmed by Rev. Mr. Cumming's conclusion--High-lying
Granite Boulders--Marks of a succeeding elevatory
Period--Scandinavia now rising--Autobiography of a Boulder
desirable--A Story of the Supernatural. 336

CHAPTER VII.

Relation of the deep red stone of Cromarty to the Ichthyolite Beds
of the System--Ruins of a Fossil-charged Bed--Journey to Avoch--Red
Dye of the Boulder-clay distinct from the substance
itself--Variation of Coloring in the Boulder-clay Red Sandstone
accounted for--Hard-pan how formed--A reformed Garden--An ancient
Battle-field--Antiquity of Geologic and Human History
compared--Burn of Killein--Observation made in boyhood
confirmed--Fossil-nodules--Fine Specimen of _Coccosteus
decipiens_--Blank strata of Old Red--New View respecting the Rocks
of Black Isle--A Trip up Moray and Dingwall Friths--Altered color
of the Boulder-clay--Up the Auldgrande River--Scenery of the great
Conglomerate--Graphic Description--Laidlaw's Boulder--_Vaccinium
myrtillus_--Profusion of Travelled Boulders--The Boulder _Clach
Malloch_--Its zones of Animal and Vegetable life. 355

CHAPTER VIII.

Imaginary Autobiography of the _Clach Malloch_ Boulder--Its
Creation--Its Long Night of unsummed Centuries--Laid open to light
on a desert Island--Surrounded by an Arctic Vegetation--Undermined
by the rising Sea--Locked up and floated off on an Ice-field--At
rest on the Sea-bottom--Another Night of unsummed Years--The
Boulder raised again above the waves by the rising of the
Land--Beholds an Altered Country--Pine Forests and Mammals--Another
Period of Ages passes--The Boulder again floated off by an
Iceberg--Finally at rest on the Shore of Cromarty Bay--Time and
Occasion of naming it--Strange Phenomena accounted for by
Earthquakes--How the Boulder of Petty Bay was moved--The Boulder of
Auldgrande--The old Highland Paupers--The little Parsi Girl--Her
Letter to her Papa--But one Human Nature on Earth--Journey
resumed--Conon Burying Ground--An aged Couple--Gossip. 375