On Fossil Fishes from Caithness . 
479 
Paracymoriza. 
Type P. vagalis , Wlk. ( Oligostigma ). 
The above generic name is proposed for Lederer’s Cymo- 
riza , the species of which are by no means congeneric with 
Guenee’s original genus of the same name. 
LIX. — On the Fossil Fishes found at Achanarras Quarry , 
Caithness . By R. H. Traquair, M.D., F.R.S. 
About a mile to the west of the well-known pavingstone 
quarries of Spital Hill, and nearly three miles south of Hal- 
kirk, in Caithness, is the summit of a lesser elevation, the 
Hill of Achanarras ; and on the slope of this hill, very near 
the top, is a small quarry, the fossil fish-remains occurring in 
which form the subject of the present short communication. 
The comparatively few feet of rock exposed in this quarry 
afford a remarkable assemblage of fossil fishes, specimens of 
which do not occur in the older collections from the Scottish 
Old Red Sandstone ; and, so far as I am aware, Achanarras 
as a locality for such remains has hardly yet been noticed in 
print*. 
The first intimation I had of the existence of this locality 
was from Dr. Marcus Gunn, a Caithness man, but now a 
well-known London oculist, who some years ago brought me 
some specimens of a strange little fossil vertebrate from the 
quarry in question, which some who had seen it were inclined 
to compare to a u baby Coccosteus .” Subsequently Dr. 
Gunn’s cousin, Mr. John Gunn, Assistant Secretary to the 
Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, brought some addi- 
tional specimens to the Museum of Science and Art, among 
which were fragments of Rhadinacanthus longispinus (Ag.) 
and Dipterus Valenciennesii (Sedgw. & Murch.). From the 
Messrs. Gunn I learn that the quarry was first opened in 
1874. 
After this I began to be able to recognize specimens of 
fishes from Achanarras by the peculiar mineral character of 
the rock in which they are imbedded, which is unlike that of 
* The only reference which I have seen to Achanarras as a locality 
for fossil fishes is contained in a short paper by Mr. John Gunn, u On the 
Rocks of Central Caithness,” Brit. Assoc. Report, 1885, p. 1030. He 
observes that u at Achanarras a curious fossil Coccosteus is found in a 
small slate quarry.” 
