292 WiUiani Stevenson By Professor Duns. 



the pleasure of sending you a copy. The specimen No 1, that in the 

 thin fragments, contains not a tooth but an ichthyodorulite, — a sort of 

 spine which formed the anterior part of a fin. I have seen a similar one, 

 only more entire, with Mr Murchison, which was dug out of the sand- 

 stones of Clashbennie. It must have been no small fish that carried such 

 a spear on its back, but there is nothing yet known regarding it. Your 

 scale, No 2, is much more obscure than the scales of the Holoptychius 

 generally are. I am mistaken if it be not an occipital plate, — ^the bony 

 matter well nigh absorbed, and the outer surface turned towards the 

 stone. All the fish of this formation wear their bones outside ; — the 

 scales, the external skull, the jaws, the rays, the ichthyodorulites were 

 pure bone ; the internal skeleton on the contrary, including the ribs, the 

 vertebral column, the internal skull, and the internal rays, were cartila- 

 ginous. They formed a connecting link between the two great classes 

 into which all true fish are divided, — the osseous and the Cartilaginous, — 

 a link which the present creation seems to want. I can make nothing 

 of your specimen No. 4. There is nothing coprolitic about it, nor am I 

 prepared to say there is anything organic about it. The chemistry of 

 geology is but little understood. I would be disposed, however, though 

 with considerable uncertainty, to submit this last specimen rather to the 

 chemist than to the naturalist learned in fossils. It has much the ap- 

 pearance of being a trick of crystalization, and had there been ice in the 

 days of the Old Red, I would be apt to attribute it to the freezing process. 

 But if there was ice in those times G-eologists are sadly mistaken. Pardon 

 me this miserable scrawl, which I have not even time enough to read over, 

 and believe that I am, My dear Sir, 



Yours very sincerely, 



HUGH MILLER. 



P.S. — In my little work I shall have to refer to your discovery. My 

 own discoveries were made at a time when I was a working man, — a 

 stone mason ; and in addressing myself to the working classes I say so, 

 in the hope of exciting their interest and awakening their curiosity. May 

 I take the liberty of asking whether I may not speak of you in that char- 

 acter also ? You will I trust forgive me if I am guessing amiss, and drop 

 me a very few lines on the subject. H.M. 



5 Sylvan Place, 17 July, 1841. 



My dear Sir, Many thanks for your kind recollection of me, and 

 your excellent letter. It is written in a manner of which no Geologist 

 might be ashamed, and the matter is as interesting as the manner is 

 good. I had intended well nigh six weeks ago sending you a copy of my 

 little work on the Old Red Sandstone, — published about that time, but 

 in the hurry of the General Assembly and the Election, added to the 

 average amount of toil incidental to a twice a week paper, the intention 

 was unluckily not effected. Forgive me the delay and gratify me by accept- 

 ing the accompanying copy. . . . Pardon me this careless scrawl and 

 believe me to be. My dear Sir, 



Very sincerely yours, 



HUGH MILLER." 



