in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 209 
scales display,—a character which I have traced, though in a less 
prevalent degree, in the scales of the recent crocodile. 
It is remarkable that M. Acassiz, from his observation on the 
sauroid fish of Leeds, unites the character of certain large angu- 
lar scales, which present a punctured appearance, with the charac- 
ter displayed by certain bones of the head, which, in an isolated 
state, possess very irregular forms, but which have a surface of 
the same kind as that exhibited by the scales. ‘To such bones 
he refers all the elongated portions collected at Burdiehouse 
possessing such a character; and, in recommending that the 
Royal Society of Edinburgh apply for a cast of the head of the 
Megalichthys preserved in the Leeds Museum, he adds,—* You 
will see in the largest of the Leeds specimens, many portions united 
which are only found detached at Burdiehouse. The surface of 
these bones is enamelled and punctured in the same manner as 
in the larger scales of Burdiehouse, and this trait is again deve- 
loped in the bones of the cranium, of the face, of the thoracic 
cincture, and of the branchiostegal lamellze, exactly in the same 
manner as is shewn in the plates of scales, as well as in all the 
detached maxillary and thoracic bones found at Burdiehouse. 
It can therefore no longer be doubted, that all these portions are 
referable to the same animal.” 
These remarks upon the scales of the Megalichthys form the 
communication which I have received upon the subject from M. 
AGASSIZ. 
A chemical estimate has been recently made of these relics in 
reference to the scales of the Lepidosteus. 
The scales of the Lepidosteus, which struck me as being so 
like those of the Burdiehouse animal, had not suggested any 
particular observations of comparison ; their mutual similarity, 
except perhaps in some few circumstances of form, being so evi- 
dent. As far, however, as relates to analysis, a gentleman of 
profound chemical knowledge, Mr Arraur Connexu of Edin- 
VOL. XIII. PART I. pd 
