ON THE STAGONOLEPIS ROBERTSONI 95 
informs me that some years ago, after perusing the memoir on 
Mystriosaurus by Dr. A. Wagner, to which I shall have occasion to 
refer by and by, his suspicions were aroused as to the real affinities 
of this so-called fish; and he even communicated to the late Mr. 
Hugh Miller his doubts (based on the strong resemblance which he 
perceived between the sculpture of the dermal plates of Stagonolepis 
and that represented by Dr. Wagner in the scutes of A/ystriosaurus) 
whether, after all, Stagonolepis might not be a reptile. That eminent 
investigator of the Old Red Sandstone fossils was, however, so fully 
satisfied of the piscine nature of the remains that Sir Charles Lyell 
did not press his objections, and it might have been long before 
the question had been revived had not Sir Roderick Murchison been 
led to visit the Elgin country in the course of the present year 
(1858). On examining the bony remains associated with scutes of 
Stagonolepis, some of which were preserved in the Elgin Museum 
and in the collections of Mr. Patrick Duff and of the Rev. Mr. 
Gordon, while others were collected by himself, Sir R. I. Murchison 
was so impressed by their obviously reptilian characters that he 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 very 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 inquiries 
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 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 amount 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 Survey." 
1 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, accompanied with figures, of 
the scutes and footmarks, as it is in these parts that the pure geologist is most likely to be 
interested. 
