President's Address. 7 



Scotch Palieontology, to whom, perhaps, more than to any 

 other, we are indebted for our early lessons in that subject. 

 I refer to the late John William Salter, for many years 

 Pahneontologist to Her Majesty's Geological Survey of Great 

 Britain. I may, perhaps, be pardoned if I make a slight 

 digression here to say a few words on Salter's work. An 

 apology is, I think, hardly necessary when we recollect how 

 intimately his name was at one time associated with that of 

 his patron, the late Sir R I. Murchison, K.G.B., F.R.S., in all 

 matters relating to Scotch geology, wlierein organic remains 

 claimed attention. My deceased friend and instructor was 

 at the same time a pala:;ontologist, an artist, an engraver, 

 and a fine entomologist. In fact, whatever subject Avas 

 brought forward for discussion, whether in science or general 

 literature, Salter was equally at home in it. His greatest 

 distinction was undoubtedly won in Silurian Paheontology, a 

 branch he especially made his own, paying particular atten- 

 tion to the Crustacea and Mollusca. His efforts in this 

 direction were greatly aided by a most facile pencil, whether 

 on stone, the blackboard, metal, or in the note-book, enabling 

 him to portray with the greatest accuracy the forms he loved 

 so well to decipher. To him we are indebted for the earliest 

 descriptions of the fossils of the Girvan areas, the north-west 

 Highlands, and the Pentland Hills. 



The first Silurian fossils from Scotland, published by 

 Salter, were derived from the collection of the Earl of Selkirk, 

 obtained at St Mary's Isle, Kirkcudbright Bay, from rocks 

 forming a continuation of the Lammermoor range.* These 

 possess great interest to the paleontologist from their inti- 

 mate connection with those found by Messrs Stevenson and 

 Fleming in the same neighbourhood. Eleven species of shells 

 were determined from his Lordship's collection, including 

 four Brachiopods, the same number of Univalves, two Bivalves, 

 and one Cephalopod. Salter believed the strata yielding 

 these fossils to be about the age of the Wenlock shale of the 

 West of England. 



The " old forms of cockles " of Wrae quarry next claimed 

 Salter's attention, and we are now able to quote the scientific 



* Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, 1847, iv., p. 206. 



