NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



275 



from what I have said, it is important to preserve these, as we may meet with 

 the fishes to which they belong in some other locality. There are still to be 

 mentioned numerous fossil bodies from this locality ; some looking like pieces 

 of skin, others evident concretions around a spine or spines, and others, besides, 

 of a coprolite nature. Were the beds more accessible many objects would be 

 found to reward the researches of the explorer. 



The third locality is in the parish of Craig, and near the village of 

 Eerryden. The section is a very small patch of thin bedded sandstone, and 

 rests upon and is surrounded on all sides by trap. The flags are very coarse 

 in sort, and have been much changed by heat, but still preserve on some 

 of their surfaces the marks of palaeozoic showers and the tread of living 

 things. These footprints are of a lowlier cast than those from the Morayshire 

 beds, but they may be of interest, notwithstanding, as belonging to the older 

 beds of the Old Red. Here, for instance, we have the evidence of the beaches 

 of that very remote period in our world's history. In the large drops im- 

 pressed on the stone, have we not the proof of the thunder-shower ? In the 

 small di'ops have we not the evidence of the drizzling rain ? And there were 

 living creatures on those sands ; very humble no doubt, but happy withal. 

 Altogether I can make out about a dozen different kinds of footmarks. In 

 one case it is a 'Pterygotiis floundering in the mud ; in another instance the 

 crustacean is of smaller dimensions, and is leisurely crossing the oozy beach ; 

 and in a third example it is a shrimp-like creature, rapidly traversing the wet 

 sand. 



I may here be permitted to make one or two remarks of general character in 

 conclusion. And first, as to the connection of the thin beds with the more 

 common " Cephalaspis" bed of Forfarshire. Upon this point I would not like 

 to speak with anything like dogmatism, but at present I hold them to be part 

 and parcel of one and the same ; indeed, I met not long ago, in the Den of 

 Cauterland, with what seem to be the spines of one of the smaU fishes in the 

 same piece of a stone with Cephalaspis head and the crushed segment of a 

 Pterygotus. 



Secondly, as to the title of the Old Hed Sandstone as a System to an 

 established place in the geological scale. Leaving out of view the English 

 beds, Avhich I do not know, in Scotland alone we can now afiirm the existence 

 of a peculiar and I may say extensive fauna and flora at the very commence- 

 ment of that period ; and as we ascend we have the well-known unique fishes 

 and the recently described vegetation of the middle and upper beds. I do 

 hope that you will allow a Scotchman very humbly to speak his mind — that 

 English geologists do not take away from us the good old classical name of 

 Old Red Sandstone. 



Thirdly, as to the succession of the different strata, or formations rather, of 

 which the system of the Old Red Sandstone is composed. On this point I am 

 disposed to adhere to the arrangement of Sir Roderick Murcliison, adopting as 

 the base or lower formation our Scottish beds which contain the Cephalaspis as 

 their characteristic fossils ; as the middle formation, the beds of Cromarty and 

 Caithness vsdth their peculiar fossil fishes ; and as the upper formation, the 

 beds of Moray, Perth, and Eife, containing the Holoptychius. 



Two entire specimens of fish exhibited by me at the British Association 

 Meeting at Aberdeen, last year, were named respectively by Sir P. Egerton 

 Acantliodes aiitiquus, Br ach^ acanthus scutiger. — Rev. Hugh Mitchell, 

 Craig. 



EossiLiFEEOUs LOCALITIES IN Malta. — Dear Siu, — I scud you a short 

 account of the best localities for fossils in Malta and Gozo ; it may be useful 

 to some of your numerous readers. 



The upper strata composed of coral-limestone is tolerably fossiliferous ; the 



