BY MRS MILLER. xllii. 



oonclusive as it was fifteen years ago, — but giving, neverthe- 

 less, his reasons in its favour, — he goes on to say, " It must, 

 iiowever, be stated, on the other hand, that the crustaceans of 

 the gray tilestones of Forfar and Kincardine not a little re- 

 semble those of the Upper Silurian and red tilestone beds of 

 England ; and that, judging from the ichthyodorulites in both, 

 their fishes must have been at least generically allied. The 

 crustaceans of the Upper Silurian of Lesmahagow, too, seem 

 certainly much akin to those of the Forfarshire tilestones." 



It is not, however, the positions of the different forma- 

 tions of the Old Red whicb are of greatest importance as 

 affecting the conclusions of the " Foot-prints," but the real 

 place and standing of the earliest known fish, whatever that 

 may be. It is for the present a member of the Cephalaspian 

 l^amily. Again, in a few years, it may be some ichthyo- 

 lite whose name we do not know ; or, in the course of an- 

 other few years thereafter, the true placoids may again have 

 the start in the race for precedence, thereby bringing the 

 " Foot-prints" literally right, like the hand of a dial coming 

 round again to the hour. Whatever the reigning family may 

 be which takes its place as firsts — if we wish to test it by 

 the development hypothesis, — it must submit to be put to 

 the question, as the author of the "Foot-prints" questions 

 the Asterolepis of Stromness, — " How, on the two relevant 

 points, — bulk and organization, — does it answer to the de- 

 mands of that hypothesis'? Was it a mere foetus of the 

 finny tribe, of minute size and imperfect embryonic faculty % 

 or was it of at least the ordinary bulk, and, for its class, of 

 the average organization?" On these points the reader 

 may partly judge for himself, by tumina to the Notes, and 



