in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 197 



SECTION IX— THE FISH OF RECENT TIMES CALCULATED TO EXPLAIN THE 

 SAUROID CHARACTER OF THE OSSEOUS REMAINS DISCOVERED AT BUR- 

 DIEHOUSE. 



The conclusion arrived at by M. Agassiz could not but be re- 

 garded, as portending a splendid accession to our knowledge con- 

 cerning the immense animals which lived in so early an epoch as 

 that from which our coal-fields date their origin. The monsters 

 which roamed among the more ancient waters of our planet, did 

 not possess for purposes of locomotion, paddles or feet like those 

 of the reptiles of later epochs ; — they were vested with fins, yet 

 still exhibited along with the attributes of fish, a sauroid form 

 of teeth, and a sauroid structure of the larger bones, in connec- 

 tion with the splendent scales of the crocodile, or gavial. 



From these considerations a natural question arose, — Does 

 any animal yet exist upon the surface of the globe, with which 

 a monster of so mixed a character can be compared ? A reply 

 has been given in the affirmative. 



Among the countless numbers of animated races long since 

 extinct, there would still appear to be some approximating tribes, 

 which linger on the present surface of the globe even during its 

 very altered state. These might have been called into life un- 

 der local or partial circumstances of subsistence, or habitat, alike 

 common to some condition of a primeval state of our planet. But 

 such concurrent circumstances, whatever they may be, we have 

 not always the means of ascertaining. 



It is sufficient to state, that, in reference to fish which pos- 

 sess important characteristics in common with those of extinct 

 tribes, M. Agassiz, for purposes of comparison and analogy, has 

 made a very diligent quest, as may be shewn by some striking il- 

 lustrations which appear among his Ichthyological researches. 



This naturalist, in establishing among his ganoid order of 

 fish a sauroid family, had referred, as a type of it, to a recent 

 sauroid fish, the principal species of which dwell among the lakes 



