in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 



183 



along with entomostraca and fish allied to such as are found in 

 coal-measures, rather justified our considering it as a fluviatile 

 deposit. 



The view which I had thus taken of the Burdiehouse lime- 

 stone, was made known to the Royal Society on the 2d of De- 

 cember 1833. 



A single day, however, had not elapsed subsequent to this 

 communication having been read, when another discovery, per- 

 fectly unlooked for, ensued. I had charged the workmen em- 

 ployed at the quarry of Burdiehouse to carefully preserve forme 

 any animal remains which might turn up ; and, upon revisiting 

 the place, in company with Mr With am, one of the labourers 

 brought me a fragment of limestone, enclosing a tooth, two inches 

 and a quarter in length, which was in the most beautiful state of 

 preservation that can well be imagined, possessing an enamel of 

 a nut-brown colour, which shone with all the brilliancy of perfect 

 freshness. 



This tooth, which is represented in the annexed wood-cut, I 



conceived, from its out- 



ward form and external 

 structure, to belong to a 

 large animal of the Sau- 

 rian class. I also pro- 

 cured some other relics, 

 apparently of the same 

 monster; and was led to 

 remark, that the limestone contained coprolites, referable, from 

 their size and from the undigested scales of small fish diffused 

 through them, to some voracious sovereign of primeval waters. 



After this discovery was made public, the workmen were en- 

 couraged to look after the relics which might turn up ; and I 

 gave them full credit for sincerity when they assured me, to a 

 man, that, in the long course of their quarrying operations, no 

 remains whatever, save those of plants, had ever been the object 



