page 461 note * Who is unacquainted with the wonderous fishes discovered and so admirably described by Agaesiz, H. Miller, Egerton, and others, such as the Pterichthys, Coccosteus, Dipterus, Cephalaspis, Holoptychius, Megalichthys, Asterolepis, etc. ? Have not the Telerpeton Elginense, the Stagonolepis, the Pterygotus bilobus, etc., been recent and startling discoveries ? Does not the rich and varied collection of Scottish fossils, formed with so much skill and science by the lamented H. Miller, as well as that of Dr. Fleming, and many others, show how much palæontological wealth we already possess, and may still expect to discover.

Unfortunately, but a small proportion of our species have been hitherto made known, and it is to be hoped and much desired that some day the palæontology of Scotland will be separately and specially treated—an object the late Professor Edward Forbes had always in view, and which, had he lived, was his firm resolution to have accomplished.

page 462 note * For some years past, I have been accumulating material and observations on Scottish Brachiopoda, on account of the monographs which are being published by the Palæontographical Society of London; and, although my own field-researches in Scotland have been very limited in their extent, I may, perhaps, be permitted to mention that I devoted with but little intermission the larger portion of the years 1835 and 1836 towards assisting my late friend Robert J. Hay Cunningham, while preparing his prize-essay ‘On the Geology of the Lothians,” which counties were traversed by us in almost every direction. I have also had the advantage of being able to visit some portions of the Lanarkshire and Fifeshire coal-fields.

It is to me a very pleasing duty to acknowledge the important, truly kind, and zealous assistance I have received from many of my countryman, while collecting material in connection with this paper, and I therefore beg to tender my warmest thanks to Sir E. Murchison, Mr. John Young, Mr. J. Armstrong, Mr. Page, Mr. J. P. Fraser, Mr. J. Thomson, Mr. A. Bryson, Mr. Rose, Mr. A. Cowan, Mr. J. Bennie, Dr. Slimon, Professor Nicol, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Rogers, as well as to the memory of the late Dr. Fleming and H. Millor.

I have also had access to a very extensive and valuable collection of specimens derived from the parish of Carluke, made many years ago by a local inquirer, to whom I am indebted for much kindness, as well as for the specimens I am able to figure, and the information I shall communicate on that important district.

page 463 note * The rock is not everywhere of a red colour, there being also enormous beds of yellow, whitish, purplish, and rusty-coloured sandstone, with coarse conglomerates, and dark-grey micaceous flagstones.

page 464 note * Down the river Kildress, in Ireland, General Portlock and Mr. Kelly have shown that under the calciferous or calcareous states there occurs extensive alternations of yellowish and reddish sandstones, then a bed of limestone, and still lower down another band of red sandstone, replete with the most common fossils of the carboniferous period, such as Athyris ambigua, Spiriferina octoplicata, Rhynchonella pleurodon, Streptorhynchus crenistria, etc. Irish geologists have rightly considered those strata as constituting the lowest division of the Carboniferous system, and they would be there in all probability some of the equivalents of those strata which Sir R. Murchison has mentioned as occurring in Fifeshire and in Ayrshire, and which he considers to form the transition-beds between the Carboniferous and Old Red systems; but with this difference, that in Ireland the red and yellow sandstones are full of fossils, while none appear to have been hitherto discovered in the corresponding Scottish strata, although the same species have been found higher up in the system. It is, therefore, questionable whether Irish geologists are justified while applying to this lower red and yellow division of the Carboniferous series the appellation of “Old Bed sandstone,” in making it a plea for annulling tho Dovonian system in toto.

page 467 note * I am indebted to Mr. John Young for the information I possess relative to the strata to the north of Glasgow; and to Messrs. Thomson and Armstrong for that relative to Ayrshire and the neighbourhood of Glasgow. I attach much importance to these districts on account of the great care with which the Brachiopoda have been collected, and of which we will furnish complete lists hereafter.

page 470 note * David Ure was for some time engaged on Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, and was ultimately a minister of the church of Scotland.