58 THE GEOLOGIST. 



If it be true, as Emmerson suggests, that there is nothing in the 

 material world but what has its affinity in the region of mind, or which 

 has its relation to the imaginative part of the rational creation, then 

 may I infer that I was led to a search for these fossils by an intuitive 

 instinct, for certainly there was little outward indication to lead me on. 

 If anything in nature could be hidden, this was an instance of the kind ; 

 for when exposed to the gaze of some around me, the truth of the 

 discovery was even then doubted, and it was only by a constant 

 reference to them, and further investigation, that I could assure my 

 friends of the importance due to it : but subsequent and more important 

 objects attained, did not fail to convince the more incredulous. 



The carboniferous matter in which these fossils are found has 

 tended very much to preserve them in their entirety : the impressions 

 are, in fact, the fossils ; the scales themselves appear to possess much of 

 their original composition, so do the bones— they are bones and scales 

 still, and not petrifactions ; and if I were asked to account for this, I 

 should attribute it to that remarkable property which carbonaceous 

 matter seems to have ; for instance, we read of the bodies of men having 

 been found in peat bogs and morasses many years after life had become 

 extinct, not having undergone putrefaction. 



The teeth seem to claim more attention than I have been able to 

 give in this imperfect detail ; but there is one of so remarkable a 

 character as to merit further notice. I allude to the one before me ; 

 its appearance and shape somewhat resemble the hucuan hand when 

 closed ; the jaw may represent the back of the hand ; the teeth, the 

 knuckles and fingers — in fact, it is more of a jaw than teeth ; but 

 the teeth and jaw are as much one and the same as the hand and 

 fingers ; a tooth will bear extraction in general, but in this instance 

 they are inseparable, as much so as the hand and fingers. 



The formation of the scales in these fishes seems to originate from a 

 central axis developing afterwards into numerous cells, which appears 

 to be the case in all animal and vegetable structure. Some of them, 

 as in the macrocephalus, lock into each other at the edges ; others again 

 not only appear to radiate from a centre, but have also a ligament in 

 the part from which the scale takes its rise, and is very observable in 

 lu^irly all of the fossils of the holoptyehius, and others for which we 

 have at present no name. 

 It may be remarked by some that the scales certainly are very 



