64 report — 1859. 



The result of these operations have been to exhibit still further the highly 

 fossiliferous character of the Nitberry Silurians, and to give ample indication 

 of a very varied and curious crustacean fauna altogether new to Palaeonto- 

 logy. Molluscous remains of well-known Upper Silurian genera have also 

 been obtained in sufficient numbers to prove the affinities of the beds ; and 

 indications of both an aquatic and terrestrial flora seem by no means rare 

 throughout the strata. 



Another fact fully established by the exploration is, that while the lower 

 beds exhibit the closest palasontological relations with the Ludlow beds of 

 England, the upper pass insensibly — and without any marked boundary, 

 lithological or palseontological — into flaggy tilestones which are the un- 

 doubted equivalents of the lowermost Old Red of Forfarshire. 



The specimens obtained during the explorations have a threefold value:— 

 1st, as proving the true Upper Silurian epoch of the Nitberry strata, and 

 thus affording a clue to the investigation of other Sub-Devonian tracts in 

 Scotland which are yet but imperfectly understood ; 2nd, as adding new 

 forms to the life of a former epoch, and thus extending the boundaries of our 

 zoological knowledge ; and 3rdly, as enabling the Government palaeonto- 

 logists, who have recently published their first monograph on the Eury- 

 pterida?, to understand more clearly the nature of this curious family of 

 Crustaceans, and to correct what must now evidently appear as misinterpre- 

 tations of their structure and affinities. 



Arranging in order the fossils obtained by Mr. Slimon, we have of 



Plant Remains: — 



Numerous fucoidal impressions. 



Calciphytes. 



Lepidendroid stems evidently in fructification. 



Mollusca : — ■ 



Modiolopsis, 2 species. 



Platyschismus, or Trochus helicites. 



Nucula. 



Lingula cornea. 



Orthoceras. 



Pterinea. 



Avicula. 



Anneixida: — Spirorbis Lewisii. 

 Crustacea : — 

 Fam. Eurypteridse. 

 Pterygotus bilobus. 

 ,, perornatus. 



„ punctatus. 



„ acuminatus. 



Eurypterus lanceolatus. 



„ pygmaeus (?). 



Stylonurus spinipes, and another. 

 Fam. Nebaliadae : — 



Ceratiocaris, several undetermined species. 

 Fam. Limnadiadae : — 

 Beyrichia. 

 Undetermined organisms, apparently Crustacean or Amorphozoan. 

 In none of the beds examined, nor during the whole of Mr. Slimon's pre- 



