The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-19 00:00:00

IMPORTANT GEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY
IN ROSS•SIIIRE.

The Ray. G. Campbell, of Tarbet, has recently
detected evidence sufficient to convince some c f the
leading geologists in London that reptiles existed
while the sandstones of Portmahomack were being
deposited. This is not only an interesting fact in
itself but has a special value from its bearing on the
questio vexata—the far-famed geological puzzle—
the age of the Elginshire reptiliferous beds at
Spynie, Findrassie, Lossiemouth, and Masouhaughs
quarry, near Burghead. Paleontologists, or com-
parative anatomists, stoutly argued for a much more
recent date, supposing that these beds, from their
fossils, could not be older than the Tries, or New
Red Sandstone; while the field geologists, almost
to a man, could not separate them from the under-
lying strata, which were on all hands acknowledged
to belong to the Old Red formation. In Elgin-
shire the point of actual contact is covered by
thick drift. It is believed, however, that no such
obstacle to the stratigraphical reading of the
rocks exists in the promontory of Tarbatness, but
that a continued section of conformable strata is to
he seen from Portmahomack, round by the light-
house, Geanies, &c., on to Shandwick and the north
Sutor of Cromarty, where the scales of Devonian (or
Old Red) fish have been found. If the Portma-
homack beds shall be found to be thus linked on to
the rocks at Nigg, another geological demurrer will
be put in to the Darwinian theory ; for the Teler-
peton, the Stagonolepis, and the Hyperodapedon,
which, in Elginshire lie in equivalent beds to the
footprint-bearing rocks of Rosshire are as highly
organised as the crocodiles of the Nile, and show as
little signs of having been in a state of transmuta-
tion or development. Equally important discoveries,
we understand, have lately been made by the Rev.
Mr. Campbell's neighbour and scientific coadjutor,
the Rev. Mr. Joass, of Edderton, demonstrating
that reptiles lived during the deposition of tili Old
tted Sandstone rocks of Easter Ross, and that it is
utterly out of the question to assign to them the
more modern age of the Trias or New Red, or
Mezosoic series.—lnverness Courier.

LAW IN7ELLIGENCE, Dec. 18.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER.

- - (Sittings at Nisi Prius at Guildhall, before the Lord
Chief Barou and a Common Jury.)
- -

SIMMONS V. BRETON-CASE OF ALLEGED INSANITY

The trial was resumed at the sitting of the Cour
this morning.

Several other witnesses were called to prove fur-
ther acts of alleged insanity by the defendant.
Among other eccentricities deposed to were running
about in the public highway without his shoes,
emptying three bottles of champagne into a pail,
and stirring it up with a mop to make punch, and
boasting that he was the owner of gold mines.
Mr. Norton, defendant's solicitor, said the defen-
dant was much better, and more manageable sober
than when he had had some drink, and that on one
occasion he asked witness to take care of him, as he
sometimes did not know what he was about. The
defendant's property amounted to between £3,000
and £4,000, and it was burdened with a mortgage
for £2,500, When he drew the cheque for £2,000
in favour of the plaintiff in May last he had from
£5OO to £6OO to his account at the London and
Westminster Bank.

Mr. Gastrill, a solicitor, who had formerly acted
for the defendant, deposed to an interview at which
the plaintiff said that if Mr. Breton did not wish to
purchase Highfield House at Crawley, he should
have no objection to let him off.
Mr. Gates, grocer, Crawley, said in May, 1862, de-
fendant owed him £9, and sent him a blank cheque
with permission to fill it up for any amount he liked.
He afterwards burnt in the face of the defendant, and
told him if he paid him he must do so properly.
Once he ordered two sides of bacon and two chests
of tea, but as he thought the order unreasonable he
did not attend to it.

Mr. Scholefield, the resident medical superinten-
dent at the Camberwell Lunatic Asylum, said that
when defendant was admitted on the 28th of May,
1862, he was of unsound mind. He got better, and
when he was discharged on the 22d July he was fit
to be entrusted to the care of his friends. Though
recovered he required care.
Cross examined—There was, at all events, tem-
porary alteration of the structure of the brain. He
was in a state of semi inebriation when admitted,
but he presented the true symptoms of a maniacal
patient, and they remained after the intoxication
passed away. Very likely his state might have been
produced by excessive drinking. That was said to
be the exciting cause. It frequently happened that
a person became mad after excessive drinking, but
sane as soon as he abstained from drinking. There
was nothing to show that he would not become of
sane mind if kept from drink.

Another witness, named Gates, a builder, at
Crawley, said he saw the defendant, when dressed
in Magenta shi:t and cricket cap, jump into a ditch
after some ducks, and catch one.
Cross-examined—He was fond of cricket. Witness
thought defendant did this act rather as a spree.
This was the conclusion of the evidence for the
defence.

Mr. Collier then addressed the jury for plaintiff,
and submitted that the defendant knew perfectly
well what he was about when he gave the cheque.
The learned Judge having summed up,
The Jury almost immediately returned a verdict
for the defendant. They stated that in their opinion
the defendant was not of sound mind when he en-
tered into the contract and signed the cheque; that
plaintiff had sufficient notice of that fact, and that
the contract was not made bona fide on the part of
the plaintiff.