Geological Society. 54>1 



The fossils described in this communication, were found about 

 three years since in the excavations on the line of the Birmingham 

 Railway, between Euston Square and Kilburn. They occurred at 

 depths varying from 12 to 40 feet, and generally in small hard 

 nodular masses of a pale-brown colour. Some of the specimens, 

 when cleared from the matrix, are oval or spindle-shaped ; others 

 are cylindrical and branched, varying in diameter from half an inch 

 to less than a tenth, and in length from 2 to 5 inches ; and several 

 are flabelliform, with a more or less rugose surface, the width of the 

 largest being 4 inches and three quarters, the length about 5 

 inches, and the thickness half an inch. The whole of the speci- 

 mens are more or less covered with small oviform grains, occasion- 

 ally furrowed down the middle, and generally distributed without 

 any definite arrangement, but in some instances are disposed in 

 rows, the grains being chiefly placed parallel to their longer axis. 

 }5esides the above more regular-shaped masses, Mr. Wetherell has 

 obtained a vast quantity of others, which present no definite form, 

 but are composed of small rough angular bodies, generally amor- 

 phous internally, but occasionally composed of concentric lamellae. 

 These specimens are likewise often more or less covered with the 

 oviform grains, some of which may also be discovered in the sub- 

 stance of the specimen. The author referred to a description by 

 Mr. Richardson, of branched bodies, in the London clay near Heme 

 Bay, but which are not covered by the oviform grains*. 



Mr. Wetherell off^ers no opinion relative to the true nature of 

 these fossils, leaving their determination open to the result of future 

 reseai'ches. 



Lastly, a paper was read " On the relations of the different parts 

 of the Old Red Sandstone, in which organic remains have recently 

 been discovered, in the counties of Mun-ay, Nairn, Banff, and In- 

 verness," by J. G. Malcolmson, M.D., F.G.S. 



The author commences by stating, that in a paper read before 

 this Society in April 1838t, he announced, that Mr. Martin had 

 discovered fossil scales and bones in the old red sandstone under 

 the cornstone four miles to the south of Elgin, and that he had him- 

 self ascertained that many of the specimens belonged to fishes from 

 Clashbinnie, since figured in Mr. Murchison's Silurian System J 

 under the name of Holoptyclms NobiUssimus. A careful exami- 

 nation of the Ichthyolite beds discovered by Mr. Miller on both 

 sides of the south Sutor of Cromarty, convinced the author, that 

 they also belong to the old red sandstone ; and he has identified 

 several of the fishes found there with those of Gamrie, Caithness, 

 and Orkney ; and this identification M. Agassiz confirmed with 

 reference to the Cromarty species of Cheiracanthus, Diplopterus, and 

 the remarkable fossil called by that naturalist Coccosteus ; the 

 Gamrie species of Acanthodes, M. Agassiz likewise recognised 



* Geol. Proceedings, vol. ii.. p. 78. [or Lond. and Edinb, Phil. Ma"., 

 vol. v. p. 219.] 

 t Ibid., vol. ii. [or Lond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag-, vol. xiii. p. 226.1 

 1 Plate, 2 bis. 



