THE SCOTTISH SILURIAN SCORPION. ' 291 



The Scottish Silurian Scorpion. 



By 



R. 1. Pocock. 



With Plate 19. 



1, Introddctory Remarks. 



Our knowledge of tlie existence of scorpions in marine beds 

 of Upper Silurian age dates from the publication of an an- 

 nouncement to this effect in the 'Comptes rendus de 

 I'Academie des Sciences/ Paris, in December, 1884, wherein 

 Professor Lindstrom and Dr. Thorell gave an account of the 

 discovery of the well-preserved remains of a fossil scorpion at 

 Gotland, in Sweden, proposing for the new form the name 

 Palseophonns nuncius. This important find in palteou- 

 tology attracted wide-spread interest, and was discussed in 

 various journals, scientific and popular. In 1885 it was fol- 

 lowed by an exhaustive memoir on the fossil by Lindstrom 

 and Thorell ('Kongl. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Handl.,' xxi. No. 9, 

 1885). Prior to the appearance of this memoir an article 

 entitled "Ancient Air Breathers," by Mr. B. N. Peach, was 

 printed in 'Nature' (vol. xxxi,pp. 295—298, 1885). In this a 

 preliminary description was given of a second Upper Silurian 

 scorpion, which had been unearthed in the summer of 1883 

 at Lesmahago, in Lanarkshire, and formed part of the rich 

 collection of fossils belonging to Dr. Hunter. The value of 

 this second specimen was enhanced by the circumstance that 

 it fortunately lies with its ventral surface exposed, and is thus 

 the complement, as it were, of the Gotland fossil, of which 



