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SIfi PHILIP MALPAS DE GKEY EGERTON, 



BABT., M.P., F.B.S. & G.S. 



To you, Sir, as our highest British authority on fossil fishes, I take th« 

 liberty of dedicating this little volume. In tracing the history of Crea- 

 tion, as illustrated in that ichthyic division of the vertebrata which is at 

 once the most ancient and the most extensively preserved, I have intro- 

 duced a considerable amount of fact and observation, for the general 

 integrity of which my appeal must lie, not to the writings of my friends 

 the geologists, but to the strangely significant record inscribed in the 

 rocks, which it is their highest merit justly to interpret and faithfully to 

 transcribe. The ingenious and popular author whose views on Creation 

 I attempt controverting, virtually carries his appeal from science to the 

 want of it. I would fain adopt an opposite course ; and my use, on this 

 occasion, of your name, may serve to evince the desire which I entertain, 

 that the coUation of my transcripts of hitherto uncopied portions of the 

 geologic history with the history itself, should be in the hands of men 

 qualified, by original vigour of faculty, and the patient research of years, 

 either to detect the erroneous or to certify the true. Further, I feel 

 peculiar pleasure in availing myself of the opportunity furnished me by 

 the publication of this little work, of giving expression to my sincere 

 respect for one who. occupying a high place in society, and deriving his 



