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hard in the fracture. It was at this point, whilst hammering and 

 working to discover some solitary relics of the past, I was accidentally 

 elevated to the highest pitch of fame, expectant only to be sensibly re- 

 duced to my more fitting place and level — that of the ordinary crowd. 

 Most desirous of spreading the scientific fame of our society, I had 

 hoped to have secured by my labours some unique specimen of this 

 interesting formation, and whilst engaged in this (at least praiseworthy 

 if not successful operation), I drove the pick point of my hammer in 

 what I thought a desirable specimen of the rock, and by dint of leverao-e 

 opened a large fissure and separated a block from the mass. Before 

 taking it down, happening to look into the opening, I saw something 

 Avith tlie broad back, which I might take for a trilobite, or toad, or bat ; 

 all three I knew were unknown in this formation, but the latter, if 

 fossil, would, by one fell swoop, destroy the orthodox creed that mammals 

 were long posterior to the early fish. Alas I my hopes, like thousands 

 of others, were delusive ; my captive was not a fossil, but a dormant 

 bat. By what lateral fissure he had obtained entrance into this solid 

 bed I could not discovei', but having placed him in my hat, the heat 

 revived him, and he soon gave ample proof that his sleep, whether of 

 untold time or only since the previous sun-rising, had left him fuU of 

 life. 



Notwithstanding my disappointment I worked through the formation, 

 supporting myself with the hope of better fortune. A little further 

 the Silurian formation crossed the stream, altering its appearance. 

 At this point the old red lies uncouformably, and is inclined, shewing 

 two disturbances ; again the old red re-appears, underlying — forming both 

 banks of the stream ; but here the clays were coloured with the blue of 

 the Silurian from above, and the alternate mixture created some singular 

 contrasts, of which I regret, from their friable texture, I cannot give 

 you specimens. The ravine then narrowed, and the stream having 

 found some fissure in the silurian, made that formation its bed, until 

 suddenly disappearing under an artificial cavity, it, with my labours, 

 terminated. My search for fossils was unsuccessful, but the faithful 

 delineations of the father geologist of the old red wiU more than com- 

 pensate the loss of any isolated specimen that might have been obtained. 

 Befoi'e, however, passing from this portion of my subject, a few 

 remarks on the peculiarities of the fish of this period may not be mis- 

 placed. Most are aware that the fish of the present creation are, in 

 structure, bony within, and partly cartilaginous without. In the fish 

 of the old red, and, in fact generally to the magnesian limestone, this 

 arrangement is reversed, and we find them bony or osseous without, and 

 cartilaginous within; covered externally with armour from snout to tail. 



