:< POWRIE COLLECTION " OF FOSSILS 31 



LIST OF THE TYPE AND FIGURED SPECIMENS 

 IN THE "POWRIE COLLECTION" OF FOSSILS. 



By R. H. TRAQUAIR, M.D., F.R.S., 



Keeper of the Natural History Collections, Museum of Science and Art. 



Edinburgh. 



THOSE who are interested in Scottish Geology and Palaeon- 

 tology will likewise be interested to learn that the important 

 collection of fossils formed by Mr. Powrie of Resvvallie has 

 recently been acquired by the Edinburgh Museum of Science 

 and Art. 



This collection, principally illustrative of the palaeontology 

 of the Forfarshire Old Red Sandstone, may be termed a 

 historical one. At the time of completion of Agassiz's great 

 works, very little was known about the fossils of Forfarshire, 

 and it was not till years afterwards that the researches of 

 local collectors, notably Mr. Powrie, Rev. H. Mitchell, Rev. 

 H. Brewster, and Mr. M'Nicol, showed that the Old Red 

 of this county possessed a fauna of interest and importance 

 beyond what had been previously supposed. 



The special importance of the Forfarshire collection brought 

 together by Mr. Powrie lies in its containing so many specimens 

 which have been described and figured in the works of Page, 

 Egerton, H. Woodward, Ray Lankester, and of Mr. Powrie 

 himself. For he has worked not merely with his hammer as 

 a collector, but also with his pen as an original contributor to 

 scientific knowledge. Mr. Powrie also, many years ago, 

 purchased a large portion of the collection of the late Mr. 

 Patrick Duff of Elgin, and thus added to his cabinet a series 

 of fossils from another region of Scotland, namely the 

 country lying along the southern shore of the Moray Firth. 

 Among these is a small but interesting selection of the 

 fragmentary fish-remains from the Upper Old Red of Scat 

 Craig, which contains many of the original specimens figured 

 by Mr. Duff in his "Geology of Morayshire " (Elgin, 1842), 

 as well as by Agassiz in his " Poissons Fossiles du vieux 

 gres rouge." Here we find, in addition, the original example 

 of Mantell's Telerpeton Elginense from the reptiliferous 

 sandstone of Lossiemouth. All geologists remember that 



