Geological Society, ^91 



substantial proofs, in the description of many ichthyolites of the Old 

 Red Sandstone of Scotland ; and, in addition to this, he will shortly 

 publish a series of fossil fishes, exclusively illustrative of the tertiary 

 basins of London and Paris, from which an enormous number of 

 species has been collected. 



In reference to the geological researches of my friends and myself 

 in Russia, I must here state, that as it is our one great object to 

 place in correct parallel the Palaeozoic types of Russia with those of 

 the other parts of Europe, we could not hesitate in referring all 

 our Russian ichthyoUtes to Professor Agassiz ; for whilst it must 

 be acknowledged that Russia contains naturalists of great merit, 

 and that among them M. Pander and Professor Asmus had com- 

 menced inquiries into the nature of these fossils, it was obvious that, 

 skilful as they undoubtedly are, they could not, for want of compa^ 

 risons, afford us the knowledge of which we stood in need, PrOf 

 fessor Agassiz, who has at his disposal fossil fishes from all those 

 parts of Europe, the geological structure of which has been well 

 explained, was alone capable of answering the following query ; 

 To what extent do the ichthyolites of Russia, which lie in beds 

 superior to the Silurian rocks, and which are surmounted by the 

 Carboniferous limestone, resemble those with which we are so well 

 acquainted in Scotland and England ? His reply has indeed been 

 most satisfactory. 



So complete, says he, is the identity of about ten species of the 

 Scottish and Russian strata, that the specimens from the two coun- 

 tries may be confounded. Among them the Holoptychius nobilis- 

 simus, three species of the Dendrodus (Owen), Diplopferus macroce- 

 phaluSi are forms which might strike any good observer, as they have 

 been previously published by M. Agassiz ; but from the more perfect 

 specimens of other species which we brought from Russia, he has 

 been enabled to recognize the presence in Scotland of the species 

 of a common Russian genus, the Glyptosteus, and also of that gi- 

 gantic genus the Chelonichthys, to whose remains I have before 

 directed your attention as having been recognized to be of ichthyic 

 character by Professor Asmus. To this enormous fossil fish, 

 some of whose thoracic bones are as large as the breast-plate of a 

 well-grown warrior, and a single bone of which measured nearly 

 three feet in length. Professor Agassiz has given the name of Che- 

 lonichthys Asmusii ; and he now informs me that he possesses frag- 

 ments of the same creature from the north of Scotland. The know- 

 ledge of this fact will doubtless lead to redoubled activity on the 

 part of Mr. Hugh Miller and those Scottish naturalists who inhabit 

 the shores of the Cromarty and Murray friths, to produce a rival of 

 the Russian giant ; a hope which I cannot express without deeply 

 lamenting the death of a most successful explorer of these remains, 

 whose loss geologists have to deplore, in common with every one 

 who could appreciate her range of thought, her accomplishments, 

 and her goodness*. 



The results, however, of the examination of the Kussi^ji ichthy- 

 * Lady Gordon Gumming. 



