66 PAPERS, ETC. 



creature. The specimen to Avhich this belonged must have 

 been twenty feet in length. With these Saurlans are asso- 

 ciated fishes of several genera. The largest prevailing 

 form is the Pachycormus. Hiigh Miller, in his " Footprints 

 of the Creator," vividly describes the perfectness of some of 

 the specimens disintombed by him, in the Old Red Sand- 

 stone, which at one time was considered to have but few 

 organic remains. With them what was once the blood, and 

 muscles, and nerves of the ancient fish, still lie under their 

 bones, sometimes assuming the appearance of thick tar, at 

 others being more indurated, so that it may be used toler- 

 ably well as wax for sealing a letter. He says the specimens 

 may have been broken ere they were first covered up, or in 

 being disentangled from their rigid embrace, but that they 

 liave caught no härm under its care. 



This may be said of the Pachycormus of the Upper 

 Lias, and although the specimens retain no traces of animal 

 matter, there does not, in some instances, appear to have 

 been a scale disturbed, and even their fins are extended as 

 if at the moment of their destruction they were in the act 

 of progression. It Avould seem as though they liad been 

 sporting in a tranquil estuary, until by an irruption of muddy 

 water they were sufFocated, for in most instances the fish 

 of this genus have perished with their mouths open, as if 

 gasping for the dement necessary to their existence. 



Perhaps the specimen of most interest amongst these 

 fishes, is one which has been in the hands of several eminent 

 Ichthyologists, who as yet have been unable to determine 

 its affinity to any fossil or existing genus. In Clearing it, I 

 at first worked out the upper part of the head, which is 

 remarkably flat, and when only pai'tly uncovered, it looked 

 not unlike a toad. Being unable to ascertain what it was, 



