The geologist has been for some time acquainted with the occurrence of Fossil Fishes in Caithness, and they have been more lately found also in Orkney, especially near Skaill, the seat of W. G. Watt, Esq. in Pomona.

The author describes these fishes as imbedded in a dark coloured flag, which lies beneath three feet of soil and loose stone, and eleven feet of solid beds of similar flag, but destitute of organic remains. The fishes are contained in two strata, measuring together about two feet in thickness. The upper stratum contains only fishes belonging to the Cartilaginei, and seemingly the genus Raia; the lower contains numerous fishes that belong to the orders Thoracici and Abdominales, most of them with distinct scales. Almost all of them lie on their bellies or sides, none on their backs, and their attitudes generally bespeak the energy of their final struggles. The fishes of these two contiguous strata are never intermixed.