1858.] MUECHISON — SANDSTONES OF ELGIN. 435 



refuse of a quarry at Lossiemouth, by a labouring man named Anderson, 

 from whom Mr. Patrick Duff obta,ined it. Carrying the specimen to Edinburgh, 

 Mr. Duff submitted it to the inspection of Professor G-oodsir, Dr. Khind, 

 Mr. Hugh Miller, Mr. Thomas Stevenson, and others, no one of whom could 

 determine to what class of animals it belonged. After having the fossil 

 photographed, Mr. Duff returned to Elgin, "no better informed" (as he says) 

 " than when he set out." Then he lent the specimen to Mr. Alexander Robertson ; 

 and, that gentleman having sent drawings of it to Agassiz, the name of StagonO' 

 lepis Bobertsoni was given to it by the great ichthyologist, as characterizing a fossil 

 fish. The next advance was made by Capt. Brickenden in the quarry of Cum- 

 mingstone, who obtained from the tacksman of the quarry a slab with a double 

 row of footprints, figured in the 8th vol. of the Quart. Jom^n. Greol. Soc. Lond. 

 Subsequently Mr. Duff and Mr. Alexander Young procured other slabs with 

 footprints from the same quarries of Cummingstone. In 1851 the " Spynie 

 Fossil of Elgin," afterwards named Telerpeton by Mantell (Quart. Journ. G-eol. 

 Soc. vol. viii.), was found by Mr. William You.ng at the bottom of a shaft which 

 had been sunk through 51 feet of sandstone down to a soft rubbly bed, in which 

 the animal had been preserved. Having obtained possession of it, Mr. Duff 

 submitted this curious little reptile to the scientific world; and the result is 

 known. Subsequently Mr. Alexander Yoimg found sandstone slabs in the Fin- 

 drassie Wood quarry, or on the northern slope of the Elgin ridge, marked with 

 impressions of the scales of Stago^iolepis ; and these, with the hollow forms or 

 moulds, in the possession of Mr. Duff, were confided to Su' Roderick Murchison's 

 care, together with other remains in the Elgin Museum, which he requested to 

 have sent to London, and from which Professor Huxley has procured some of 

 liis most remarkable results. Lastly, Mr. Martin, of Elgin, discovered a large 

 bone (the bony matter being preserved) at Lossiemouth ; and shortly afterwards 

 Sir R. Murchison and Mr. G-. Grordon found other bones at the same quarries ; 

 all of which have been referred by Professor Huxley to tlie Stagonolepis, some 

 of the scutes of which (the original specimen of IBM) were found in the same 

 spot. 



Now, as these curious reptilian remains might long have remained unknown, 

 had no liberal promoter of fossil natural liistory, like Mr. Duff, resided at Elgin, 

 it is much to be regretted that neither the Telerpeton nor the Stagonolepis should 

 have had his name attached to it as its specific distinction. — R. I. M. 



Postscript. — Whilst this memoir was passing through the press, 

 the Rev. Gr. Gordon acquainted me with the discovery of another fossil 

 animal in the same beds at Lossiemouth in which the Stagonolepis 

 occurs, and soon after transmitted to me some of its bones. In a 

 further search, in which he took an active part, Mr. Gordon was so 

 fortunate as to procure many more portions of the animal in question, 

 including vertebrae, skull, and teeth. These relics having been sent 

 up to the Museum of Practical Geology for examination (to be after- 

 wards returned, with other remains, to the Elgin Institution), Pro- 

 fessor Huxley has pronounced them to belong to a Saurian reptile, 

 about six feet long, remarkable for the flattened or slightly concave 

 articular surfaces of the centra of its vertebrae, and for its well-deve- 

 loped costal system and fore and hind limbs, — but more particularly 

 characterized by its numerous series of subcylindrical palatal teeth. 



Professor Huxley terms this new reptile Hyperodapedon Oordoni, 

 the specific name being given in honour of my valued friend the 

 Eev. G. Gordon. This reptile (which, like the Stagonolepis and 

 Telerpeton, is of a genus unknown in any other formation) will be 

 fully described by Professor Huxley in the Monographs of the 

 Geological Survey. 



