106 THE SCALDING THEORY. CHAP. ix. 



map of Caithness. As to the dip of the strata, the 

 geologists are right; but as to the localities of the 

 fossils, they are greenhorns. I have traced all the 

 shores, from Ratter on the east to Drumholiater on the 

 west. Some beds are perfect Museums of fish heads and 

 bones. I will send you some coprolites of a size that 

 will make you doubt if they really have been voided by 

 fish. Sometimes I think larger animals must have in- 

 habited the sea of the Old Eed Sandstone." 



On the 8th of April he writes " In your outlines of 

 Mr. Eose's lecture, in your last paper [the Witness], I 

 find a more rational view of the probable use of the 

 thick coverings of the animals of the Old Eed. Dr. 

 Buckland's scalding theory always appeared to me to be 

 ludicrous, and not in keeping with facts. Thus, in the 

 same strata in which I found the very large plate, there 

 were scattered ^promiscuously scales of the Osteolepis. 

 You know how thick they are, and you now also know 

 that some kind of animal was covered with mail in 

 snme places nearly <m inch thick. 



" Now, there is no proportion between the protecting 

 fi igments of the two creatures ; and if Buckland was 

 right in his views, it must have been as perilous for poor 

 Osteolepis to swim side by side with Coccosteus as it 

 would be for a modern dandy to attempt braving the 

 rigours of a polar winter in night-gown and slippers. 

 The heat must have been as speedily fatal in the one 

 instance as the cold would be in the other. 



"S jvg beneath his impenetrable bone, methinks I hear 

 sa'j'y '"/occo laughing at poor Osteolep, and ironically 



