40 ANNUAL REPORT OF 



has less resemblance than any other fossil of the Old Red Sand- 

 stone to< anything that now exists. When first brought to view 

 by the single blow of a hammer, there appeared on a ground of 

 light-colored limestone [i. e., sandstone] , the effigy of a creature, 

 fashioned apparently out of jet, with a body covered with plates, 

 two powerful-looking arms articulated at the shoulders, a head 

 as entirely lost in the trunk as that of the ray (or skate), and a 

 long angular tail, equal in length to' a third of the entire figure." * 



Elsewhere when commenting on the singular fish fauna of the 

 Old Red Sandstone he remarks : "I can never forget the impres- 

 sion produced upon me by the sight of these creatures, furnished 

 with appendages resembling wings, yet belonging, as I had satis- 

 fied myself, to the class of fishes. * * * It is impossible to see 

 aught more bizarre in all creation than the genus Pterichthys ; the 

 same astonishment felt by Cuvier in examining Plesiosaurs, I 

 myself experienced when Mr. H. Miller, the first discoverer of 

 these fossils, showed me the specimens which he collected in the 

 Old Red Sandstone of Cromarty." 



The genus Pterichthys (Fig. i) is not represented in the rocks 

 of this country, although a closely related form, BothHolepis, 



Pterichthys testudinarius Ag. Lower Old Red Sandstone; Scotland. Lat- 

 eral aspect, restored by Dr. R. H. Traquair. X ^2- 



occurs in the Devonian of eastern North America and in Color- 

 ado. Other most curious and ancient Ostracophores are the 

 forms known as Cephalaspis (Fig. 2), Pteraspis (Fig. 3) and 



1 Introduction to Hugh Miller's "Footprints of the Creator," p. xxi. Amer- 

 ican edition (Boston), 1850. 



