152 THE GEOLOGIST. 
what was the more stimulating to our labours, we were assisted by 
the same James McNicol who was the finder of the fish, and who 
still possesses among his geological stores the upper concave cast of 
the creature, and with which neither coaxing nor bribe will induce 
him to part. 
Mr. James McNicol, now that I have introduced him to the reader, 
is "grieve" at Tealing Manor, and will be found a most useful guide 
and intelligent explorer in the quarries of the district. These lie 
nearly equidistant from Dundee and Forfar, about eight miles inland 
from each; and, as both places are on the lines of railway to Aberdeen, 
the savans of the ensuing meeting of the British Association will com- 
mand an easy opportunity of paying them a visit. 
But, in addition to the interesting fossils enumerated above, the 
party were equally successful in their capture of various other organ- 
isms. Rich as the bed of tilestone is in Parka decipiens and limbs of 
Pterygotus, there are spines and other osseous fragments in the greatest 
profusion. The spine-forms, indeed, are so numerous that in some 
parts the surface was literally covered with them ; the white spear- 
like projections contrasting strongly with the fucoid masses in which 
they were entangled. There were likewise fragments of bodies 
resembling the recently detected Ceratiocaris and Kampecaris, and 
undoubtedly a caudal appendage of Stylonurus Powziensis, so abun- 
dant in the quarries nearer Forfar ; and along with these were some 
well-defined heads of the Cephalaspis Lyellii. 
The plant-remains are equally abundant, consisting of stems and 
branches of trees, and tufts of water-grasses thickly matted together. 
The stems are generally flattened, often three to four inches broad, 
but the bark is so changed by carbonization as to render the appli- 
cation of the microscope of little use. The sedge-like grasses (Juncites) 
are slender and jointed, and sometimes several feet in length. For 
miles east and west, in every opening of the tilestone-bands, the 
surface of the rock is entirely blackened by these and the other 
organisms, clearly demonstrating a quiet inland shore-line, or marshy 
lagoon, over which much of the detritus may have been cast by the 
action of the tides, and in the silt of which such may have flourished 
in situ. Thither would roam the Pterygotus, Cephalaspis, and other 
fish and crustaceans in quest of food, so plentifully supplied by the 
