126 AUTUMNS ON THE SPEY. 



the entire body was covered with scales like a coat 

 of armour, and as brilliant as mother-of-pearl. In 

 fact, although of moderate dimensions, it was 

 fresher and more distinct than any specimen I had 

 hitherto seen. 



Several subsequent visits have I since paid to 

 the same spot, and although I have frequently 

 succeeded in securing small specimens of Cheira- 

 canthus, Cheirolepis, and DiplacantJius, and even 

 fragmentary plates of Coccosteus and Pterichthys, 

 yet on none of these occasions have I felt such a 

 thrilling interest as when I discovered my first 

 perfect Ostcolepis in the fish-bed of Tynet 

 burn.* 



* The fish-beds of Clune and Lethenbar lie about thirty miles to 

 the westward, near the Findhorn river. It is related by Mr. Duff, 

 in his sketch of the Geology of Moray, that the nodules in that 

 locality being composed of crystallized fibre-carbonate of lime, and 

 therefore of the purest quality for cement or for agricultural pur- 

 poses, were for several years burned into lime shells, and many 

 were the valuable specimens of fossil fishes that were sacrificed in 

 the operation. It is told by the people in the neighbourhood that 

 the late proprietor, suspecting that the nodules contained lime, 

 sent specimens of them to Edinburgh to be analyzed, and received 

 them back with the assurance that they were of pure lime and 

 adapted for useful purposes ; but the included ichthyolites were 

 not noticed, and the work of destruction went on till Dr. Mal- 

 colmson detected them and informed the scientific world of their 

 great interest. 



