2 MONOGRAPH OF DURA DEN. 



published in the Agricultural Transactions for 1840 ; in the 

 Course of Creation, where a chapter is devoted to the consi- 

 deration of the yellow sandstone of Dura Den ; and in the 

 Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 



More recently, and since the publication of these works, seve- 

 ral additions have been made to the collection of the interesting 

 organic remains. The 16th day of September, 1858, will ever 

 be memorable in the annals of Dura Den, when, in presence of 

 Sir Roderick J. Murchison, Lord and Lady Kinnaird, and a 

 distinguished party from Rossie Priory, the largest fossil Holo- 

 ptychius ever discovered was exhumed from the rock, in full and 

 perfect outline and entireness, and measuring upwards of three 

 feet in length. A great many specimens of smaller dimensions 

 were obtained on the same fortunate occasion. Another trial 

 was made about two months afterwards by the proprietors, Mr. 

 and Mrs. Dalgleish of Dura, when a considerable space of rock 

 being first cleared of superficial detritus, nearly a thousand 

 fossil fishes were lifted from their stony bed of ages ! Many 

 of these were of large dimensions, and their several organs of 

 heads, teeth, scales, and fins beautifully preserved. The pre- 

 vailing family is that of the holoptychius, but along with these 

 some entirely new forms were discovered ; portions of former, 

 but imperfect and undescribed genera and species were detected 

 by us among the trophies of the day ; and hence the more 

 immediate occasion furnished to the author for now under- 

 taking this monograph ical record of a locality so remarkably 

 rich in the numbers and variety of its fossiliferous treasures. 



This classic field of geology has some special attractions in 

 itself, besides those arising from its forms — " new and strange" 

 — in its rocky foundations. No lover of the beautiful can fail 

 to be arrested by the fine grouping of objects that successively 

 fall upon the eye in traversing the ravine, enclosed by high 

 precipitous rocks on both sides, and which are diversified by 

 the various colours of their interlaminated beds of shales and 

 sandstones, of traps and ironstones. The mansion-houses of 



