ON THE

CORALS OF THE OOLITIC SYSTEMOF SCOTLAND .

Corals are extremely rare in the Lias. Messrs Milne-Ed-wards and Haime figure, in their elaborate “ Monagraph ofthe British Fossil Corals,” only three Liasic species, two ofthem exceedingly minute Turbinolidce, and the third appa-rently a Cyathophyllum, of doubtful lineage, and very pro-bably, it is stated, a misplaced paleeozoic specimen. In theLias of the eastern coast of Scotland , at Eathie, Nigg, andShandwick, I have not succeeded, after the search of years,in finding a single coral; in that of Skye, however, I havebeen more fortunate. When examining, nearly eight yearsago, the Liasic deposit at Broadford,—by far the most ex-tensive development of this formation in Scotland , for it runsacross the island from sea to sea, in a belt from two to fourmiles in breadth,—I came, near the base of the formation,and at a little distance from where it leans against the so-called Old Bed Sandstone of Slate, on what seemed to be adark-coloured bed of concretionary limestone, of very irregu-lar surface, and varying from three to four feet in thickness.The seeming concretionary masses were separated by whatappeared to be a gray, indurated mud, which wrapped them