REMARKS ON CEPHALASPIDES. 



137 



CEPHALASPIDES OF FORFARSHIRE. 



Sib, — The communication in your num- 

 ber for this month (March) from Mr. G. 

 Roberts, in which he carefully conducts 

 the enquiring geologist over some of the 

 most interesting Silurian and Old Red 

 Sandstone districts in England, and 

 clearly points out the places where the 

 remains of these curious primeval fishes, 

 the Cephalaspides, are to be looked for, 

 makes me think that a short notice of 

 what Forfarshire has done towards better- 

 ing our acquaintance with at least one of 

 these fishes, the Cephalaspis, may not be 

 uninteresting ; for, although, fortunately 

 for geology, Scotland has now no mono- 

 poly of Old Red Sandstone fishes, yet so 

 far as I am aware no really perfect speci- 

 men of that fish has been found out of 

 this county. In forwarding this notice, 

 I can assure the reader that I am actuated 

 by no desire to have my name in any way 

 connected with " a memoir of the earliest 

 known fish," or "the history of the first 

 appearance of vertebrated life," ruy sole 

 motive being, by giving so far as I can, a 

 popular description of what is known of 

 the Cephalaspis, to fan the by no means 

 flagging zeal of local collectors to com- 

 plete our knowledge of this queer fish, 

 and its congeners. 



Although tolerably well - preserved 

 specimens of the Cephalic shield which 

 covered the head of the Cephalaspis, are 

 by no means rare, yet it is very seldom 

 indeed that the body is disinterred from 

 our rocks ; and as I do not recollect of 

 more than the head of this fish having been figured in " The 

 Geologist," I prefix a rough pen and ink sketch of a rather com- 

 plete specimen from my own collection, reduced to one half the 

 natural size. 



The very characteristic strong bony shield which protects the head, 

 and from which the creature takes its name (being made up of two 

 Greek words signifying a head and a shield), had been covered exter- 

 VOL. iv. s 



Cephalaspis in Mr. Powrie's 

 collection. 



