194 Dr Hiszerr on the Limestone of Burdiehouse 
ous. Owing to this structure, and to their rounded form, it was 
conceived that they were the epiphyses of vertebra; but other 
specimens having been obtained in which an external lamellar 
structure might be also remarked, this notion was discounte- 
nanced, and the relics in question were adjudged to be large 
scales. But, with regard to the animal to which these scales 
might be referred, no supposition was hazarded. Indeed, some 
little mystery regarding them may possibly subsist at the pre- 
sent moment. (Other representations of these scales appear in 
Plate X. and Fig. 2 and 3.) . 
A second description of scales possessed great thickness. They 
were adorned with a brilliant enamel of a nut-brown colour. They 
were of an angular, rhomboidal, or polygonal form, and most of 
them exhibited small pits or dots upon their surface, (see Plate 
XI. Fig. 4to7). Now, it is certain that any opinion which could 
be formed from these scales was at the best equivocal. Although 
1 at first advocated their exclusively saurian character, yet, when 
I saw a large specimen of the Lepisosteus, named by M. Acas- 
siz the Lepidosteus, which is preserved in the British Museum, L 
immediately considered the possibility that the scales might be- 
long to some animal of the finny tribe, which suspicion was stated 
in the memoir that I read at a sectional meeting of the British 
Association. At the same time, a comparison made with various 
crocodiles, collected from different countries, not only shewed me 
scales of the self same form and thickness ; but even the very pits 
or dots by which I at first conceived the scales of the Burdie- 
house animal were to be distinguished. So far, then, the saurian 
evidence was scarcely decisive. 
In the third place, a discovery was made of bony rays of ex- 
traordinary dimensions and beautifully configurated. (See Plate 
XI. fig. 1, A and B. Others also, of a different form, and of less 
size, were found. Regarding these relics, no question at all could 
arise. They evidently belonged to fish, and could not by any pos- 
sibility be confounded with the remains of reptiles. 
