82 REPORT — 1842. 



them with sufficient accuracy previous to the printing of his memoir for the 

 palaeontological portion to be published at the same time. These drawings, 

 however, will not be lost to science ; perhaps the larger portion are already 

 published. Alexander Robinson has also devoted himself with much success 

 to the investigation of the fossil fishes of the old red : he even forwarded to me 

 some very rare ones, with a book of drawings executed in a superior style, 

 representing those contained in the Museum of Elgin and in several private 

 collections. The collections of Lord Enniskillen and of Sir P. Egerton have 

 likewise furnished very beautiful specimens from the old red sandstone of 

 the North of Scotland ; and these gentlemen have had the great kindness to 

 cause Mr. Dinkel to draw for me all those which it appeared desirable to 

 publish. Dr. Traill and Mr. Strickland again have increased the number of 

 known species, already so considerable, from the schists of the Orkney Islands, 

 which appear to be an inexhaustible deposit. 



While the North of Scotland thus furnished treasures hitherto unknown, 

 Professor Jameson and Mr. Anderson were collecting in the counties of the 

 South the species contained in the upper strata of this formation, which are 

 not less curious nor less well-preserved, and of which several have been 

 figured very fairly by Mr. Anderson in his interesting Memoir on the 

 Geology of Fifeshire. 



Thanks to the distant excursions of Mr. Murchison, I need not confine 

 my report on the fishes of the Devonian system to the species found in the 

 British Islands, but I am able to compare them with those which that inde- 

 fatigable geologist has brought with him from Russia, and which exhibit the 

 most perfect identity with those of Scotland. On the continent, MM. Omalius 

 d'Halloy and Hoeninghausen have likewise found some scaly-plates of fishes 

 irom this formation. My Report would be imperfect were I not to notice 

 the doubts which have long since been entertained with regard to these 

 large scaly plates of the old red sandstone, which have been cast at various 

 times into the most different classes of the animal kingdom, and even of the 

 vegetable kingdom, and which are at present solved in a satisfactory manner. 

 They must be referred to the Crustacea, of which Dr. Buckland and myself 

 were convinced at the meeting at Glasgow. 



At present I will offer some general considerations on the characters and 

 the geological distribution of the species of fossil fishes which are found in 

 the various strata of the Devonian system, reserving the descriptive details 

 for the special part of my ' Monograph.' 



On this occasion I cannot refrain from making a general observation on 

 the method to be followed in determining these fossils. There was a period, 

 already remote from us, when the most superficial approximations between 

 the organic fragments buried in the strata of the surface of our globe and 

 the species at present living at its surface sufficed for the investigations of 

 the time. Cuvier was the first who applied to these determinations the ne- 

 cessary precision, establishing them on satisfactory comparison one with the 

 other and with the living species : and the results, therefore, at which he 

 arrived, have undergone no modification with time. Unfortunately, the 

 method employed by Cuvier is not yet very generally followed ; nume- 

 rous works on fossils might be mentioned whose authors have never studied 

 the recent animals which might have some analogy with the fossils they de- 

 scribe, trusting to the general results obtained by their predecessors, or else 

 establishing their analogies from the comparison of simple figures. More- 

 over, now that a new and efficacious means of determining accurately the 

 structure of fossil remains has come into use, it is less possible than ever to 

 admit into the sanctuarv of science results which have not been submitted to 



