Notices of Memoirs—E. T. Newton—Elgin Reptiles. 173 
corals, foraminifera, sponges, radiolarians, and diatoms and other 
forms are built up, and as these structures are continually being 
formed, and the materials solidified as fast as they enter the oceans, 
there is no reason why they should augment. Hence the proportion 
of carbonates of lime and magnesia in the ocean waters may be very 
much the same now as it was in Silurian and Carboniferous times. 
22. We are thus brought to the conclusion that the saltness of the 
sea may have originated in very much the same way as has that 
of the Dead Sea, Lake Oroomiah, or the Great Salt Lake of Utah, 
or many others which might be named, and which possess in 
common the characteristic of having no outlet. When the great 
envelope of vapour which surrounded the incandescent globe began 
to condense upon its cooling surface, the resulting waters, though 
containing, as Dr. Sterry Hunt supposes, acid gases, were destitute 
of saline ingredients. ‘The process of salinification began with the 
first streams which entered the seas from the bordering uplands, 
and this process carried on throughout the long ages preceding 
the Silurian period brought the waters to a condition suited to 
sustain the life of forms of inhabitants representative of those 
which inhabit the ocean at the present day. These long ages 
may be supposed to include, not only the Archean and Azoic 
periods, but that during which the first crust was in course of 
formation over the incandescent globe. 
TI.—On some new Reprines From tHE Enern Sanpstone. By 
H. T. Newroy, F.G.S. From the Proceedings of the Royal 
Society, Vol. 52. 
URING the last few years a number of Reptilian remains have 
been obtained from the Elgin Sandstone at Cuttie’s Hillock, 
near Elgin, which are now in the possession of the Elgin Museum and 
of the Geological Survey. These specimens represent at least eight 
distinct skeletons, seven of which undoubtedly belong to the Dicy- 
nodontia, and one is a singular horned Reptile new to science. All 
the remains yet found in this quarry are in the condition of hollow 
moulds, the bones themselves having entirely disappeared. In 
order, therefore, to render the specimens available for study, it was 
necessary, in the first place, so to display and preserve these cavities 
that casts might be taken which would reproduce the form of the 
original bones. Gutta-percha was found to be the most suitable 
material for taking these impressions; and in some _ instances, 
especially in the case of skulls, the casts had to be made in several 
parts and afterwards joined together. 
The first specimen described is named Gordonia Traquairi; it is 
the one noticed by Dr. Traquair in 1885, and referred to the Dicy- 
nodontia ; besides the skull, it includes fragmentary portions of other 
parts of the skeleton, and is contained in a block of sandstone which 
has been split open so as to divide the skull almost vertically 
and longitudinally. The two halves have been so developed that 
casts made from them exhibit the left side and upper surface, as 
well as the main parts of the palate and lower jaw. In general 
