140 Proceedings of the Boijal Physical Society. 



labours of Fleming was the interest which he took in 

 palseontology, a branch • of inquiry which at his time was 

 much neglected in Scotland, and the collection of fossils 

 which he left behind him contains a large number of original 

 types, the value of which can only be properly appreciated 

 by those who have themselves worked in this department. 

 His contributions to carboniferous palaeontology chiefly relate 

 to invertebrate forms of life ; but he was also one of the first 

 to discover and to publish the occurrence of the remains of 

 fishes in the Old Eed Sandstone of Scotland. 



And the enthusiasm of Hugh Miller as a collector, and his 

 wonderfully vigorous and graphic style as a writer, have been 

 in a very remarkable way the means of arousing an interest in 

 these strange old fishes which inhabited the waters in which 

 the Old Red Sandstone — so important an element in the 

 geological structure of Scotland — was deposited. 



Now, as it is my duty this evening to resign my position 

 of president, to which you did me the honour three years ago 

 to elect me, and in so doing to address you upon some topic 

 connected with our scientific work, what better subject can I 

 choose than the history of the progress of our knowledge of 

 Scottish Fossil Ichthyology, a branch of study in which these 

 two illustrious deceased members of our Society took so deep 

 an interest ? 



A tolerably uninteresting subject withal, some may say, 

 for the spell of the writings of Agassiz and of Hugh Miller 

 seems to have died away, and the entire subject of fossil 

 remains seems at present not to occupy a very exalted posi- 

 tion in the estimation of the general public. The notion seems 

 to be pretty extensively abroad that the study of fossils is 

 merely the most uninteresting branch of geology, and that 

 he who occupies himself with their investigation has no claim 

 to the dignity either of the geologist or biologist, but is a 

 mere " palaeontologist," a paltry sort of creature, whose utmost 

 function is to follow in the wake of the geologist, drawing up 

 long lists of long names of things found in this stratum or in 

 that, and whose work, after all, is of very doubtful value or 

 importance. Moreover, it is extensively supposed that the 

 appropriate place to bring forward a " palteontological " com- 



