2 NATURE 
The more important treasures from the shales of 
Eskdale and Liddesdale are fishes, crustaceans, and 
arachnids. The fishes were at once placed in the hands 
of Dr. R. H. Traquair, whose devotion to fossil ichthyo- 
logy has made him our /acé/e frinceps in this department 
of paleontology. The first part of his report on them, 
devoted to the Ganoidei, has been completed and is pub- 
lished by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Zvans. Roy. 
Soc. Edin. xxx. (1881), p. 15). He points out the extra- 
ordinary interest of the collection, both as opening up an 
almost entirely new fish-fauna, and as revealing remark- 
able structural peculiarities in many of the new forms. 
Out of twenty-eight species of ganoids no fewer than 
twenty at least arenew. Of the sixteen genera in which 
these species are comprised five are now for the first time 
added to science (Phanerosteon, Holurus, Canobius, 
Cheirodopsis, and Tarrasius), of which one (Zarrasius) is 
altogether so peculiar that no place can be found for it in 
any known family. To the family of Palzoniscidz fifteen 
new species and three new genera are added. The most 
abundant species is a form of Rhadinichthys, which occurs 
also on the north side of the Silurian barrier. Another 
fish of common occurrence in the latter region is 
Eurynotus crenatus, of which only a single scale has been 
found in the Eskdale and Liddesdale region. A third 
species common to the two sides of the barrier is probably 
Wardichthys cyclosoma. But with these and possibly 
one or two other exceptions, all the fishes in the southern 
area are as yet peculiar to it, while at the same time the 
common forms of the Lothians are conspicuous by their 
absence in Eskdale and Liddesdale. These facts suggest | 
interesting problems in Carboniferous geography and in 
ancient zoological distribution. 
Without entering here into structural details, we may 
refer to the peculiarities of one or two of the new forms 
described by Dr. Traquair. He proposes the term 
Phanerosteon for a genus of Palzoniscid fishes, possessing | 
a fusiform body, apparently for the most part devoid of 
scales, with a peculiarly rounded off dorsal fin, and desti- 
tute of fin-fulcra. If the nakedness of the body be due 
not to the non-preservation of scales, but, as seems almost | 
certain, to the original absence of them, we are here pre- 
sented with a Palzoniscoid fish showing a condition of 
squamation almost identical with that of Polyodon. Only 
one species, but a number of specimens of it have been 
obtained. The new genus //o/urus, though placed by its 
author among the Palzoniscide, offers in its non-bifur- 
cated caudal and rounded long-based pectoral fin a con- 
tradiction to his definition of this family ; but the cranial - 
osteology is in the main so decidedly Palzoniscid that he 
prefers to regard the genus as standing most fittingly 
where he has put it. Two species are described. Stil] 
more aberrant from the typical Palaoniscidz is the genus 
Canobius, which to the general configuration of the family | 
unites a disposition of the suspensorial and opercular 
apparatus almost identical with that of the same parts in 
the Platysomid Euryzotus. Four species are described, 
But the most remarkable of all this singular group of 
fishes is included by Dr. Traquair in a new family, to 
which, from the more characteristic Sof two specimens 
having been found at the foot of the Tarras Water, he 
has given the name of Tarrasiidz. Zarvasius, the typical 
and only known genus possesses rhombic, minute, | 
| out the structure of the insects in great detail. 
[Mov. 3, 1881 
shagreen-like scales, persistent notochord, well ossified 
neural and hzmal arches and spines, with the slender 
interspinous bones penetrating between the extremities of 
the vertebral spines as in teleostean fishes, and a long 
dorsal fin composed of closely-set jointed rays. Only 
two specimens, conjectured to belong to the same | 
species, have as yet been obtained. Their state of pre- — 
servation is such as to leave in doubt some important 
parts of the structure of this curious fish. It is to be 
hoped that future exploration in the same prolific locality 
may furnish Dr. Traquair with additional evidence on 
the subject, and enable him to complete his work. 
Associated with the skeletons of the fishes are the re- 
mains of some new phyllopod and decapod crustaceans, 
which have been worked out by Mr. B. N. Peach, the 
Acting Palzontologist of the Scottish Geological Survey, 
who has described them in a memoir also communicated 
to the Royal Society of Edinburgh (7yvams. Roy. Soc. 
Edin. vol. xxx. (1881) Part 1). The Phyllopods consist of 
two new species of Ceratiocaris, which differ from the 
Silurian species of this genus in having the body rela- 
tively much larger than the carapace. The numerous 
specimens are ina good state of preservation, one indi- 
vidual having been found with its intestinal canal dis- 
tended with food. Of Macrurous Decapods several new 
species occur that differ in no essential respect from their 
living representatives. They belong to the genera 
Anthrapalemon, Paleocrangon, and Paleocaris, upwards 
of forty specimens of one species of Anthrapalemon 
having been obtained. Mr. Peach has worked out their 
structure with great skill) Among his observations is — 
the occurrence of abundant minute calcareous calculi on | 
the tests of these crustacea, precisely like those of the | 
common shrimp. 
One of the most singular features in our recent additions | 
to the palzeontology of the Lower Carboniferous rocks of the 
Scottish Border is the abundance in which the remains of | 
scorpions have been discovered. The existence of these 
arachnids (Zoscorpius) in strata of this agein Scotland was 
made known some years ago by Dr. H. Woodward. But 
we are now in possession not of mere single and imperfect 
fragments, but of numerous and often admirably-pre- 
served specimens which have enabled Mr. Peach to work 
In an- 
ticipation of the early publication of his descriptions 
the following notes may be given here. He finds that 
these Palzozoic forms differ in no essential respect from. 
the living scorpion so far as regards external organs. He 
has recognised in them every structure of the recent 
form, down even to hairs and hooks on the feet. The 
sting alone has not been certainly observed, but that it) 
existed may be inferred from the presence of the poison) 
gland which Mr. Peach has detected in the fossil state. 
The chief difference between the living scorpion and its) 
ancient progenitors lies in the fact that in the fossil form 
the mesial eyes are much larger in proportion to the 
lateral ones, and also to the size of the whole animal. The 
two mesial eyes are placed on an eminence near the 
anterior margin of the carapace formed by two con 
verging tubes, and so arranged that the creature could 
look with them upwards, outwards, and forwards. Theré 
are at least four lateral eyes on each side. The man: 
dibles, palpi, and four pairs of walking legs are beauti, 
