42 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



turbed. The fishes on another slab, upwards of fifty, were literally glistening and 

 sparkling in their vivid armiture of bones (for the scales of these olden fishes are 

 all true bone) ; and one of them in its full, plump, rounded form, looked as 

 tempting as any Isaac Walton could desiderate in the choicest salmon of our 

 modern rivers. This peculiarity in the Dura Den fossils is tlie more remarkable 

 and noticeable, because in all our other quarries, as Clashbennie, Parkhill, Coupar- 

 Angus, Cromarty, and elsewhere, their scales are of a dirty chalky whiteness, 

 without tint or enamel. Strange, too, that they not only lie here in clusters and 

 detached groups, but are confined within the range of a single stratum in at least 

 several hundred feet of visible rock. No fragment of skeleton, bone, or scale, is 

 discoverable anywhere throughout the mass, save in this one thin division. Specu- 

 lation here for the savans who shall meet at Aberdeen next year. What the 

 cause of the preservation of the enamel, of its bright tint, and above all, of the 

 limitation of the fossil-bed ? Many other curious and interesting questions will 

 suggest themselves. Some of the slabs were taken out entire and unbroken, and 

 are now safely deposited in the museum-rooms of Dura House ; and the unrivalled 

 collection there brought together, in these and in former researches, will hence- 

 forth form a subject for admiration and instruction to the curious and learned in 

 geological science. The collection is all the more valuable, from the circumstance 

 that the fish-bed is nearly run out, or thins and dips inconveniently under the 

 great mass of superincumbent rock. The specimens obtained consist of several 

 species of ffoloptychms, Dlpterus, Platygnathus, and the Glypticus Dalgleisianus 

 (named in honour of the Dalgleish family, at the British Association in Edinburgh, 

 1850). A splendid specimen has been forwarded to Sir Roderick Murchison for 

 the Museum of Economic Geology ; and it is to be hoped that the noble collection 

 at Dura House, unsurpassed in richness, variety, and preservation, will find its 

 way to some national depository of Science as a memorial of the finest fossil-gi'ound 

 of the true Scottish Old Red Sandstone. 



Anonymous Communications. — " With respect to the 'Notes and Queries' in 

 the Geologist, I would suggest, that, considering the subjects and object of that 

 division of your valuable magazine, it would be very desirable for writers to give 

 their names and addi'esses in full. — I remam, dear Sir, yours truly, J. E. Wake- 

 field, Highgate." 



Crustaceans of Old Red Sandstone. — " Sir, — One of the strata of tliis 

 neighbourhood, apparently the basis of the Old Reel Sandstone, is charged with 

 abundant remains of the Pterygotus, or allied Crustaceans. Unfortunately, when 

 entombed, the remains must have been in a fragmentary state, although they are, 

 or at least their impressions, now beautifully preserved in the stone. I have once 

 met with a nearly complete specimen, about a foot in length, but in eveiy other 

 instance portions only of these creatures have been found — such as the rings of the 

 abdomen, the jaw-feet, and in one instance the prehensile limb. The sciilpturiug 

 of the rings is often very distinct, but puzzling from its intricacy. I trust this 

 note will be inserted in your valuable magazine, and "uill catch the eye of some 

 experienced palaeontologist, who may kindly tell us if the different species are to be 

 distinguished by their ornamentation, or if this merely varies in the same species 

 according to its period of growth ; or, perhaps — for this explanation has also 

 suggested itself— if the different divisions of the body, such as the thorax, seg- 

 ments, and limbs, are likely to be variously sculptm-ed. Far as we are here from 

 all sources of information and comparison with specimens in museums, you Avill 

 readily understand how valuable some hints on this matter would be. — Yours 

 truly, H. M., Craig, Montrose." 



R. A. C. Tring. — The specimen received is Corhula globosa, from a septarium of 

 the London Clay, 



E. St. Aubyn.— The fragment of a fossil received, belonged to a large bivalve- 

 shell of the Upper Chalk, the Imceramus Cmieri. The specimens of this species, 

 from their large size, and comparative thinness of shell, were particularly liable to 

 be broken up ; and are every\vhere found in the state of fragments, as noticed by 

 our correspondent. 



Live Frogs.—" Sir, — I observe, in your August number of the Geologist, 

 the publication of my connnunication about the Dundonald Frog, and your 



