214 Mr. Hardy on a Red Deer's Antler. 



The earliest notice I can find of its occurrence on the east 

 coast of Britain, is in the Naturalist for 1851, where it is stated 

 to have been taken in the Bay of Nigg in Kincardineshire. 

 As an English shell, however, it was first recorded by myself 

 in the Berwickshire Transactions for 1856, from a solitary 

 living specimen found at low water mark on the Longstone, 

 one of the Fame Islands. Since that time, Mr. Dickie reports 

 it in 1857 as abundant in Aberdeenshire; Mr. James Hardy in 

 1859 found it at Cockburnspath ; Mr. Wm. Boyd has this 

 year taken several specimens near low water mark from the 

 rocks at Spittal, south of Berwick, and more recently it has 

 been found at North Sunderland. In the county of Durham, 

 it has been recently discovered. Mr. Albany Hancock, in 

 1859, records it from Whitburn, and states that in September 

 of 1857 he took three specimens, after much searching, at 

 Roker, which is the most southern locality for it as yet known 

 on the east coast. 



These facts suggest the inquiry, has this Mollusk been 

 living in our district prior to 1856 and escaped notice, or has 

 it only recently become a denizen of our seas ? I cannot but 

 think that, if it had existed there for any long period prior to 

 1856, it must have been observed; for the Berwickshire, 

 Northumberland, and Durham coast has long been carefully 

 searched by able and zealous naturalists, and the Acmsea tes- 

 tudinalis having well marked specific characters, readily dis- 

 tinguishing from other Patelloid forms, must have been de- 

 tected. The reasonable inference is that, this Mollusk is ex- 

 tending its range from its northern specific centre and gradually 

 migrating southward. It is desirable that the appearance of 

 this Mollusk in new localities should be noticed, that hereafter 

 the causes and extent of its southern distribution may be 

 determined. 



On a fragment of a Red Deer''s Antler found at Coldingham , 

 in 1858. By James Hardy. 



Besides rescuing from destruction the fossil relics described 

 in a preceding paper, Mr. Wilson has handed to me a portion 

 of the antler of a Stag or Red Deer, dug up in Coldingham 

 Churchyard, in 1858, whose claims of a patriotic character, 

 will appeal with better relish to some, than those productions 

 of the pre-historic ages, that lie beyond the reach of common 

 sympathies. The fragment, he writes, was discovered while 

 opening new ground for a grave *' at the base of one of the 



