in the Old Bed Sundstone. 85 



an inch in thickness. The part which, when in its natural position, 

 had been imbedded in the cuticle, is comparatively smooth, 

 exhibiting, however, in a very distinct manner, the semicircularly 

 parallel layers of growth, with obsolete diverging striae, giving to 

 the surface, when under a lens, a reticulated aspect. The part 

 naturally exposed is marked with longitudinal, waved, rounded, 

 anastomosing ridges, which are smooth and glossy. The whole 

 of the inside of the scale is smooth, though exhibiting with 

 tolerable distinctness the layers of growth. The form and struc- 

 ture of the object indicated plainly enough that it had been a 

 scale, a conclusion confirmed by the detection of the phosphate 

 of lime in its composition. At this period I inserted a short 

 notice of the occurrence of these scales in our provincial news- 

 paper, the Fife Herald, for the purpose of attracting the atten- 

 tion of the workmen, and others in the neighbourhood, in order 

 to secure the preservation of any other specimens which might 

 occur. 



Nearly a year after these scales had been discovered, not only 

 in the upper, but even in some of the lower beds of the yellow 

 sandstone, I was informed that oyster shells had been found in a 

 quarry in the old red sandstone at Clashbinnie, near Errol, in 

 Perthshire, and that specimens were in the possession of a gentle- 

 man in Perth. Interested in the intelligence, I lost no time in 

 visiting Perth, and was gratified to find, that the supposed oyster 

 shells were in fact similar to those which I had ascertained to 

 occur in a higher part of the series. The scales were, however, 

 of a larger size, some of them exceeding three inches in length 

 and one-eighth of an inch in thickness. Upon my visit to the 

 quarry I found the scales, as in the yellow sandstone, most 

 abundant in those parts of the rock which exhibited a brecciated 

 aspect. Many patches, a foot in length, full of scales, have 

 occurred; but as yet no entire impression of a fish has been 

 obtained. One specimen, however, at present in the museum of 

 the Antiquarian Society of Perth, and found by Mr Spence, (see 

 PI. II. fig. 2,) is evidently the relic of a fish, and probably identical 

 with the dipterus macropygopterus of Professor Sedge wick and Mr 

 Murchison, from the Caithness beds. (Geol. Trans. III. 2d ser. 

 p. 143, Tab. XV. f. 1,2, 3.) The specimen is about seven inches 

 long, two imches deep, and from seven to eight-tenths in thickness. 

 The scales above the lateral line are indistinct, — those towards 

 the belly appear to have been larger, and kept apart by the inter- 

 vention of the surrounding matter. This part, in separating from 

 the rock, has acquired a very uneven surface. The whole is indeed 

 very indistinct, as no definite form of scale can be perceived. 

 Though both sides of the fish are preserved, no traces of fins or 

 vertebrae remain. The interior appears somewhat cellular. 



Another scale, differing from those already noticed, (see PI. II. 

 fig, 3,) is about an inch and a quarter in length, and an inch in 

 breadth. In external appearance, it bears a very close resemblance 



