On Spores in the Carboniferous Formation of Scotland. 105 



Some of the thin coals were almost entirely composed of such 

 carbonised ve^^e table matter. 



Numerous evidences of animal life are present. These 

 consist of fragments of Scorpion skin, which occur in almost 

 every old soil or weathered coal. They are generally very 

 fragmentary, but some specimens are sufficiently well pre- 

 served for Mr B. IST. Peach to determine to which portion of 

 the body they belong. These fragments are frequently 

 dotted with hair-like projections of the skin, similar to 

 those on recent scorpions, and in many of the examples 

 pores were numerous. These specimens are of a rich 

 reddish-brown colour, and highly-enamelled, with a polished 

 surface. 



It is difficult to realise the thought suggested by these 

 fragments of Scorpion skin, that in Midlothian a climate once 

 prevailed in which a wholly tropical Scorpion, or a closely- 

 allied form, abounded in great numbers. The preservation 

 of these fragments seems due to the almost indestructible 

 substance of which they are composed, the chitine being 

 proof against all the ordinary agencies of decay. 



In many of the old soils, fragments of Eurypterid skin in a 

 perfect state of preservation, with all the peculiar surface 

 ornamentation of the family, also occur. The Eurypterid 

 skin is universally of a dark plum-blue or an intense black, 

 very dense in substance, about the thickness of ordinary 

 writing-paper, always opaque, and quite unlike the scorpion 

 skin, which is generally translucent, and sometimes trans- 

 parent. These fragments of Eurypterids were exceedingly 

 welcome, as they proved that the Eurypterids of the Car- 

 boniferous Period were not aquatic, but land animals, 

 thus confirming the conclusions at which Mr Peach had 

 previously arrived.^ 



In Joppa Quarry, in two positions — one immediately be- 

 neath the limestone, and another about 100 feet higher in 

 the section, in two fireclays, two or three inches in thickness, 

 each under a small coal, and therefore land surfaces — several 

 hundreds of fragments of Eurypterids were found. Such 



^ Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin,, vol. xxx., p. 511. 



