in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 223 
very satisfactory analysis of a coprolite found in Fifeshire. (See 
Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for January 1835.) 
The most important information yielded by these coprolites, 
points to the means of support and habits of the animals which 
lived during such a remote epoch. 
In the smallest description of coprolites, we see, with few ex- 
ceptions, little more than a homogeneous mass. A question then 
arises with regard to the support of such immense shoals of 
smaller fish as appear to have frequented this locality. These 
must have formed objects of pursuit for larger monsters whose 
remains are here collected. 
In this inquiry I shall recur to the Entomostraca which formed 
the subject of our early inquiry. 
That calcareous springs, such as must evidently have been in 
play when the deposit of Burdiehouse was formed, should have 
been favourable to the growth of the myriads of microscopic mi- 
nute animals which occupied the waters of this ancient river, or 
lake, I need not remark, as the nature of their testaceous cover- 
ings points to the medium in which they subsisted. 
The inquiry, then, which is suggested, has a reference to the 
existence of these Entomostraca as the food of the smaller finny 
inhabitants of ancient waters. 
The existence of these microscopic races assuredly finds some 
analogy with what has been recorded by an excellent naturalist 
regarding the modern waters of Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire. 
Entomostraca abound in this fresh-water lake about seven-twelfths 
of a line in length, which are supposed to approach nearest to 
the Lynceus lamellatus and Trigonattus of Mutter. They breed 
very frequently throughout the year, and carry the ova about 
with them, as is the habit of most crustaceous animals. (See Dr 
Knoa’s Memoir in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edin- 
burgh, vol. xii. page 505.) 
Until the appearance of Dr Knox’s instructive paper on the 
habits of the Vendace (the Corrigenus of systematic writers), 
