in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 183 
along with entomostraca and fish allied to such as are found in 
coal-measures, rather justified our considering it as a fluviatile 
deposit. 
The view which I had thus taken of the Burdiehouse lime- 
stone, was made known to the Royal Society on the 2d of De- 
cember 1833. 
A single day, however, had not elapsed subsequent to this 
communication having been read, when another discovery, per- 
fectly unlooked for, ensued. I had charged the workmen em- 
ployed at the quarry of Burdiehouse to carefully preserve forme 
any animal remains which might turn up; and, upon revisiting 
the place, in company with Mr Wiruam, one of the labourers 
brought me a fragment of limestone, enclosing a tooth, two inches 
and a quarter in length, which was in the most beautiful state of 
preservation that can well be imagined, possessing an enamel of 
a nut-brown colour, which shone with all the brilliancy of perfect 
freshness. 
This tooth, which is represented in the annexed wood-cut, I 
a ‘ | ue conceived, from its out 
ward form and external 
structure, to belong to a 
large animal of the Sau- 
rian class. I also pro- 
cured some other relics, 
apparently of the same 
monster; and was led to 
remark, that the limestone contained coprolites, referable, from 
their size and from the undigested scales of small fish diffused 
through them, to some voracious sovereign of primeval waters. 
After this discovery was made public, the workmen were en- 
couraged to look after the relics which might turn up; and I 
gave them full credit for sincerity when they assured me, to a 
man, that, in the long course of their quarrying operations, no 
remains whatever, save those of plants, had ever been the object 
