56 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Dec. 3, 



from ammonia, which is sometimes introduced into fossils by infil- 

 tration. A want of sufficient material prevented fuller investigations 

 of the organic elements in these remains. 



The fossil bones hitherto analysed appear to have been all from the 

 more recent formations ; but it was remarked that the results of 

 this analysis of a Palaeozoic fossil did not differ materially, in most 

 respects, from those previously obtained by analysing fossil bones 

 from much newer deposits. 



2. Description of Anthracosaurtts Russelli, a new Labyrintho- 

 dont from the Lanarkshire Coal-field. By T. H. Huxley, 

 Esq., E.R.S., E.G.S., Professor of Natural History in the Royal 

 School of Mines. 



In September last, Mr. James Russell, Mineral Surveyor, of Chapel- 

 hall, near Airdrie, called at the Museum of Practical Geology to 

 make some inquiries respecting the probable nature of a fossil (sup- 

 posed to be a fish) lately brought to light by the workmen engaged 

 upon the Monkland Iron and Steel Company's estate, about a mile 

 from Airdrie and twelve miles east of Glasgow, and found in what 

 is known as the Airdrie or Mushet's black-band Ironstone*. I was 

 at that time absent from London ; but Mr. Etheridge, to whom Mr. 

 Russell described the fossil, strongly advised that a careful drawing 

 should be made and sent up to London, for my examination. This 

 was eventually done, and the sketch, faithfully executed in its 

 general characters, which reached me on the 6th of November, ap- 

 peared so conclusively to indicate the Labyrinthodont nature of the 

 fossil, that I at once requested Mr. Russell to permit me to have it 

 sent up to the Museum for closer examination. Mr. Russell very 

 obligingly consented to this proposition, and the specimen reached 

 me in perfect safety on the 27th of November, my interest in it 

 having in the meanwhile been greatly heightened by the reports 

 respecting its characters which had reached me from Professor 

 Rogers, Mr. David Page, and Mr. Armstrong of Glasgow. 



A glance at the fossil was sufficient to satisfy me that these reports 

 had not unduly exaggerated its merits. It exhibited, in fact, the 

 greater part of the contour of a skull, 15 inches long by 12 inches wide 

 at the widest part. That the under or palatine surface of the skull 

 was turned towards the eye was obvious from the numerous stumps 

 of broken teeth which followed the anterior moiety of its contour ; 



* The President has kindly furnished me with the following note respecting 

 the stratigraphical position of the Airdrie black -band Ironstone: — 



' ' The fossils described in this memoir were found in, or else close to the ' Airdrie 

 or Mushet's black-band' Ironstone, which at this point changes into Coal. Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Ralph Moore's published section, this stratum lies about 564 feet 

 below the topmost Coal-measures, and about 666 feet above the ' Moorstone 

 rock,' which I believe to be the general equivalent of the English Millstone grit. 

 The bones were therefore found in the true Coal-measures, far above the Gil- 

 merton Limestone series (the equivalent of part of the English Carboniferous 

 limestone, in which Loxomma was discovered), and probably 2000 feet or more 

 above the horizon of the Burdie House limestone." 



