Correspondence — Rev. E, }Yyatt-Edgell. 2il 



Since then Mr. Thomson has obtained the loan of lire's original 

 specimen from the collection of the Eoj^al Society of Edinburgh, 

 has had it cut and polished ; and has thus proved that Cyclophyllum 

 fungites of Duncan and Thomson is lire's Fungites ; the point for 

 which I have all along contended. John Young. 



HUNTERTAN MuSEUM, CoLLEGE, GLASGOW, 



Jpril 8l/t, 1868. 



FISH-REMAINS IN THE LOWER DEVONIAN OF SOUTH DEVON 

 AND CORNWALL. 



Sir, — Mr. Salter, in going over my late son's collection, has made 

 a somewhat important discovery, which he has requested me to 

 communicate to you. 



There has been so much doubt thrown upon the specimens iden- 

 tified with fish remains in Devonian rocks, whilst they are T^nown 

 to swarm in the Old Eed sandstone, that every communication on 

 the subject is of some importance. 



It will be remembered that many supposed remains of fish from 

 the slate rocks of Polperro, in Cornwall, were identified by Professor 

 M'Coy with the Sponges. On this new form of sponge he bestowed 

 the name Steganodictyum, describing it as a reticular layer overlaid 

 by a striated coat. Some specimens of this are in my late son's 

 collection. But with them is a large and well preserved plate, six 

 inches long, which evidently belongs to a species of Pteraspis. 



Of course, only the usual nuchal plate is preserved ; but the 

 markings on this are so perfect as to render it almost impossible 

 to mistake the nature of the fossil. The closely-set sinuous grooves, 

 occasionally interrupted, and disposed in concentric fashion over the 

 whole plate, are rather closer together than in the ordinary species 

 of Pteraspis from the Cornstone rocks. The species is undoubtedly 

 new to Britain, although Mr. Salter has not, at present, the means 

 of comparing it with the one described by Eoemer from the Lower 

 Devonian of Germany. 



The point of interest is, of course, the finding a Lower Old Eed 

 Sandstone fish in Lower Devonian rocks in our own country. It 

 also throws doubts upon the relationship of Steganodictyum to the 

 sponges, inasmuch as this fossil shows cells like those of that 

 genus immediately beneath the striated coat, whilst specimens of 

 Steganodictyum, also in this collection, show the internal layer of the 

 fish-plate with the cellular layer above it. 



I only wish to draw attention to this fact. Mr. Salter will pro- 

 bably send you a fuller description than is contained in these few- 

 notes ; but he thinks that no time should be lost in making the fact 

 known. E. Wyatt-Edgell. 



2, Lansdowne Place, Ladbroke Square, W., 

 nth April, 1868. 



Having — together with Mr. E. Eay Lankester — ^^examined the late 

 Mr. Wyatt-Edgell's specimens of the so-called Steganodictyum Cormi- 

 bicum and also the cephalic plate of Pteraspis, from Mudstone Bay, 

 South Devon, and compared them with Eoemer's type-specimen of 



