PAPEE BY HUGH MILLER, 



ox A CURIOUS SUITE OF FOSSILS FROM THE LOWER OLD RED 

 SANDSTONE OF SCOTLAND.* 



Read before the British Association, at the Meeting held in 

 Edinburgh in 1849 



It is my purpose to introduce to the notice of the Associa- 

 tion, in this paper, a curious suite of fossils from the Lower 

 Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, many of which are still with- 

 out duplicate in the public museums of the empire, and but 

 imperfectly represented in those of E-ussia. In one import- 

 ant respect there attaches to them a peculiar interest : they 

 belong to the earliest animals of the vertebral division of 

 which our knowledge is not so much inferential as direct. 

 Of the Silurian placoids we can know comparatively little : 

 the palaeontologist finds whole families represented by but a 

 few defensive spines, a few teeth, or a few shagreen points ; 

 and from the resemblance which these minute portions bear 

 to corresponding portions in existing placoids can he alone 

 decide regarding their structure, form, size, and character. 

 He has to acquaint himself with them quite as much through 

 the medium of signs as of things, — of minute signs, which he 



* These fossils are likewise at present in the University of Edin- 

 burg};, to be arranged when the new premises shall have been completed 

 — L. M. 



