IV AMERICAN PUBLISHERS’ NOTICE. 
substance of what is important in the several prefaces alluded to, 
is incorporated with this. 
“The Old Red Sandstone” was Hugh Miller’s first geological 
work, and was first published in 1841. In 1842, a second edition 
was called for. This contained about fifteen pages of new matter, 
referring chiefly to the least known portion of the Old Red system — 
that middle formation to which the organisms of Balruddery and 
Carmyle belong. A print (Plate x1.) illustrative of this portion 
of the work was also added, and one or two conjectures were made 
to give place to the facts at which they pointed. 
A third edition was issued in 1846. In the preface to that edition, 
Mr. Miller announced that the bold prediction made by him in the 
first, —that the ichthyolites of the Old Red Sandstone would be 
found at least equal to those of all the geological formations united, 
at the death of Cuvier,— was already more than fulfilled. For, 
while Cuvier had enumerated but ninety-two species of fossil fishes 
in all, Agassiz had already, in 1846, enumerated one hundred and 
five in the Old Red Sandstone alone,—a formation which had been 
regarded as poorer in organisms than any other. The catalogue of 
species in that formation, as determined and arranged by Agassiz, 
Was given in this edition. Many additions to the volume in the 
form of notes were also made, and in several instances the text was 
modified. It had been stated in the first two editions that a gradual 
increase of size was observable in the progress of ichthyolitic life, 
aud that the Old Red System exhibited, in its successive formations, 
this gradation of bulk, beginning with an age of dwarfs, and ending 
with an age of giants. When the third edition was issued, it had 
been ascertained that there were giants among the dwarfs; the re- 
mains of one of the largest fishes found anywhere in the system had 
