TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 97 



the most remote times, he dwelt in palaces, luxuriated in gardens, worshiped iu 

 temples of solemn grandeur, and reared towers and pyramids enduring as the rocks 

 from which they were hewn. The arte and sciences and commerce accompanied 

 the progress of his terrestrial occupation, bringing in their train the elegances, 

 luxuries, and perfected implements of defence or attack which the highest stages 

 of civilization imply. Races of the human stamp have perished — are perishing ; 

 and, as if it were a law of nature, where a race cannot rise and maintain itself be- 

 yond a certain standard, civilization, instead of benefiting, only leads to their more 

 rapid extirpation from the face of the earth. Certain it was, that tribes on islands 

 in the Pacific, which in Cook's time were enumerated by hundreds of thousands, 

 can now be counted by their tens or twenties ; and just as certain that, wherever 

 the christianizing element accompanied, the onward progress of civilization would 

 know no limits until the Divine principle in man should vindicate his heaven- 

 chartered claims to universal earthly dominion. 



On Dura Den Sandstone. By the Rev. Dr. Anderson, F.G.S. 



This deposit haa now yielded nine genera and eleven species of fossil organic 

 remains, one of which belongs to the crustacean type, and the rest to the family of 

 true fishes. Two of the genera are common to the Old Red and the Carboniferous 

 systems, Holoptychius and Diplopterus. Three of the genera are found in the Lower 

 and the Upper series of the Old Red, Pterichthys (Pamphractus, Ag.), Platygnathus, 

 and Diplopterus. Three genera are common to the Middle series of Morayshire 

 and Clashbennie, and the Upper series of Dura Den, Dendrodus, Phyllolepis, and 

 Diplopterus. Two new genera belong exclusively to the Yellow Sandstone of 

 Dura Den, Glyptoltzmus Kinnairdii and Phaneropleuron Andersoni. The author 

 referred, for a minute description of these newly-discovered fossils, to his ' Mono- 

 graph of Dura Den*,' just published, which contains Professor Huxley's account 

 and designations of them, along with his restoration and structure of the Holo- 

 ptychius Andersoni. In dissenting from the views of Sir Philip Egerton, in his 

 valuable memoir recently read before the Geological Society, Professor Huxley 

 observes, " that a small triangular dorsal fin begins opposite the hinder edge of the 

 root of the ventral fin, and is situated a little behind the middle of the body. It is 

 separated by about the breadth of its own base from the commencement of the 

 dorsal lobe of the caudal fin, which occupies nearly the posterior third of the whole 

 length of the body, and attains its greatest height about the middle of its length. 

 The caudal end of the body gradually tapers to a point, which is not, as has been 

 usually represented, bent upwards, and the ventral lobe of the caudal fin, though 

 rather shorter than the dorsal lobe, has the same depth. Tlie caudal Jin conse- 

 quently forms a very nearly symmetrical rhomboid, and is not in the ordinary sense 

 heterocercal. The anal fin is rather larger than the dorsal, and is separated by but 

 a very small interval from the ventral lobe of the caudal." 



The author, in conclusion, vindicated the claims of the yellow sandstone of Dura 

 Den to be classed with the Old Red rather than with the Carboniferous superin- 

 cumbent beds ; in its geognostic position, mineral qualities, and fossil organisms 

 ranking among the rocks of the great fish epoch, and not with those which contain 

 the flora of the succeeding age of gigantic vegetables and mountain chains of shelly 

 limestone. Not a shell or vestige of plant has anywhere been found in the whole 

 mass of rock of Dura Den, nor in any one of the numerous quarries in the district. 



On Tertiary Fossils of India. By W. H. Baily, F.G.S., Acting Paleon- 

 tologist to the Geological Survey of Ireland. 



The object of this communication was to give merely a sketch of results from 

 the study of a large suite of fossils collected chiefly from Burmah and Tenasserim 

 Province, by Prof. T. Oldham, Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India, 

 the details being intended for publication in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey 



* Dura Den — a Monograph of the Yellow Sandstone and its remarkable Fossil Remains, 

 by John Anderson, DD., F.G.S. Edinb. : Thomas Constable and Co. London : Hamilton, 

 Adams and Co. 



1859. 7 



