.1858.] HT7XLEY- — STAGONOLEPIS. 441 



used every exertion to gather together all the evidence which could 

 tend to elucidate so important a question. In pursuing this object, 

 Sir Roderick was aided in the most zealous and liberal manner by 

 the Committee of Management of the Elgin Museum, by Mr. Patrick 

 Duff, and by the veiy active personal exertions in the field of the 

 Rev. George Gordon. 



To the two latter gentlemen my own thanks are also especially 

 due for their prompt courtesy in attending to the many iaquiries 

 and requests with which I have had to trouble them, since it became 

 my duty, in accordance with the instructions of the Director-General 

 of the Geological Survey, to enter upon the investigation of these 

 remains. 



Thanks to these many helping hands and heads, that duty has 

 been rendered far easier of performance than it promised at first to 

 be, and I hope to exhibit to the Society to-night such an amoimt of 

 evidence as will fully justify the conclusions I have to propound. 



I would premise that, on the present occasion, I purpose to speak 

 only of such portions of the ancient reptile — for such it truly is-— 

 as bear directly on those conclusions ; and that the full description 

 and illustration of all the remains which have been discovered will 

 be reserved for the Memoirs of the Siu'vey *. 



The reptilian fossils from Elgin, which have passed though my 

 hands, are of three kinds :— 1st, Bones ; 2nd, Natural casts of bones 

 and teeth ; 3rd, Footprints. 



Of these, the first have been derived exclusively from the Lossie- 

 mouth quarries ; the second are almost wholly from Findrassie ; 

 while the third class of remains is derived exclusively from Cum- 

 mingstone. I am informed that up to the present timet no fossils 

 referable to vertebrate animals have been found in either of these 

 locahties, save such as may with the highest probability be con- 

 sidered to belong to Stagonolepis. 



Dermal Scutes of Stagonolepis (PI. XIY. figs. 1, 2, 3). — The first 

 series of remains of which I purpose to speak are the dermal scutes 

 and their casts. 



Of these there are two kinds : the one distinguished by their flat- 

 tened outer and inner surfaces and nearly square shape ; the other, 

 by having a bent or angulated contour arising from the possession of 

 a longitudinal ridge externally, and of a correspondingly excavated 

 inner surface. While the former, which, for distinction's sake, may 

 be termed the flat sm^^s, preserve pretty nearly the same dimensions, 

 the latter, or angulated scutes, vary greatly in size, some being very 

 much larger, and others as small as, or even smaller than, the flat 

 scutes. 



The characteristic features of the flat scutes are best exhibited by 

 the specimen upon which the genus was originally foimded. It is 



* In order to render the following pages as useful as possible to the ordinary 

 readers of the Journal, I have given a disproportionately full description, accom- 

 panied with figures, of the scutes and footmarks, as it is in these parts that the 

 pure geologist is most likely to be interested. 



t See the concluding Note to this paper, p, 459. 



