| Administrative History | The drawings accompanied John Grant Malcolmson's paper "On the Relations of the different parts of the Old Red Sandstone in which Organic Remains have recently been discovered, in the Counties of Moray, Nairn, Banff, and Inverness", which was read before the Society on 5 May 1839. The refereeing process was positive, but as the accompanying fossils were mainly fish the intention was to delay the paper's publication until Louis Agassiz, who was working on his 'Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles' (1833-1843/4), could cast his expert eye over them. This never happened and with Malcolmson's death in 1844, the paper was believed lost. Whilst researching the Elgin Sandstones for a paper in 1858, Roderick Murchison (1792-1891) was reminded of the paper by Malcolmson's friend Reverend George Gordon (1801-1893). Malcolmson's original mss along with the remaining illustrations were found in the Society's archive.
According to the published article which appeared in the 'Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society', vol 15 (1859), a topographical map was also retained. This is no longer extant, but a letter describing a geological map which Malcolmson was compiling can be found at: GSL/L/R/4/266-266a. Malcolmson's sections which did survive were published in the 1859 paper and were not retained.
The watercolour of the fossil fish is similar to the species from Lethen Bar which were drawn by Lady Eliza Gordon Cumming (1797-1842), see: LDGSL/614/3/114b. Gordon Cumming, along with Elgin artist Jonathan Stiven ([c.1799]-1872), were to provide artwork for Malcolmson's intended published paper. |
| Publication Note | The accompanying paper was read before the Society 5 May 1839, and an abstract was published as: Malcolmson, J G. "On the Relations of the different parts of the Old Red Sandstone in which Organic Remains have recently been discovered, in the Counties of Moray, Nairn, Banff, and Inverness", Proceedings of the Geological Society of London', vol 3 (1839) pp141-144; the final version was published in 1859 in the 'Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society', vol 15 (1859), p336-352. |