176 FOSSIL FISHES. 



in any of the quarries near Edinburgh, a view 

 of the subject which was confirmed by the 

 experience of Agassiz, while on his visit to Scot- 

 land during the meeting of the British Association, 

 in September last. Upon an examination of the 

 limestone quarries, the genus discovered to abound 

 in them in the greatest profusion was Palcsoniscus, 

 Agass. ; and a new species has been named P, 

 Rohisoniiy in honour of Mr Robison, secretary to 

 the society which, by its endeavours, has rescued 

 so many of these relics from destruction. Another 

 fossil, entirely of a new genus, has been named 

 Eurynotus creantus ; and a third, the first which 

 was discovered, has received the title of Pygopte- 

 rus Bucklandii. The immense bony rays found 

 in the same quarries are also referred to fish; 

 and a new genus has been provisionally named 

 Gyracanthus. The teeth, scales, and large bones, 

 which gave rise to the idea that they belonged to 

 a saurian animal, have been considered by Agassiz 

 as sauraid, that is, resembling those of an animal 

 of this kind not really belonging to it ; and he 

 refers them to some fish allied to Lepidosteus, 

 which unites the characters of the crocodilean 

 animals with those of fishes, and in an existing 

 species of which that naturalist has lately been 

 able to demonstrate, that the swimming bladder 

 of fishes performed, to a certain extent, the ofRce 



