Miscellaneous. 



161 



of many of the most ancient fossil fishes ; and this analogy explains 

 the circumstance of the frequent absence of any remains of an in- 

 ternal bony skeleton within the often perfect dermal covering of 

 many species of fishes in strata of the older formations. 



From these recent discoveries in Scotland, and the examination of 

 the unexampled collections of fossil fishes in the museums of Lord 

 Enniskillen and Sir P. Egerton, and in other cabinets in this country 

 and on the Continent, Prof. Agassiz has now extended his total 

 number of species of extinct fossil fishes to more than 1700, of which 

 nearly 250 new species have been the fruits of his recent visit to 

 Great Britain and Ireland. 1 have elsewhere spoken of the ines- 

 timable value of the discoveries of Agassiz in the department of 

 fossil ichthyology, not only in relation to geological investigations, 

 but also to zoology and physiology. In his history of the rapid 

 progress he has made within the last six years, it has been duly and 

 gratefully acknowledged by him, that his now voluminous work, the 

 4 Poissons Fossiles,' must at an early stage have ceased for lack of 

 funds, without the liberal support it has received from a large list 

 of subscribers in this country, and from pecuniary grants of the 

 British Association. [See vol. vii. p. 487.] 



In the necessary preparations for this large and costly work, M. 

 Agassiz had accumulated in his portfolio a splendid collection of 

 drawings, chiefly by Dinkel, not less beautiful as works of art, than 

 precious as being the originals of the plates in his great scientific 

 monument, the ' Poissons Fossiles;' but, engaged as he is in a mul- 

 titude of other costly and splendid scientific works, the Professor 

 of Neufchatel was anxious to employ the capital thus locked up in 

 his portfolio in a way more profitable to science, by causing it to 

 fructify in the production of other publications. By a recent acci- 

 dent this fact came to the knowledge of Lord Francis Egerton, who 

 forthwith proposed to become the purchaser of this entire collec- 

 tion of original drawings, about 1200 in number, permitting M. 

 Agassiz to retain at Neufchatel the unpublished portion of them 

 as long as may be convenient for the completion of his work. Such 

 opportune and liberal interference to advance the progress of a 

 work of pre-eminent scientific value is becoming of a nobleman long 

 distinguished as a patron of Art, and whose conviction thus sub- 

 stantially shown of the value of researches which are rendering such 

 inestimable service to Science, evinces his Lordship's worthiness of 

 his position as President of the Geological Society at Manchester*. 



FOSSIL CRUSTACEANS. GIGANTIC SPECIES OF EURYPTERUS. 



It will be in the recollection of those among us who have watched 

 the progress of the recent rapid discoveries of fossil fishes in the old 

 red sandstone, that at the Edinburgh Meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation (1834) a most anomalous fossil from the old red sandstone of 

 Clashbinnie, in the county of Forfar, and considered by the disco- 



* M. Agassiz has acknowledged in some of the leading scientific jour- 

 Dais of the Continent the liberality with which Lord Francis Egerton has 

 thus come forward to facilitate the progress of researches, in which the sci- 

 entific world is deeply interested. 



Ann. $ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. ix. M 



