ΤΟ

RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, Esq. F.R.S.

&c. &c, &c.

PRESIDENT OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

In the autumn of last year I sat down to write a few geological sketches for a newspaper; the accumulated facts of twenty years crowded upon me as I wrote, and the few sketches have expanded into a volume. Permit me, honoured Sir, to dedicate this volume to you. Its imperfections are doubtless many, for it has been produced under many disadvantages; but it is not the men best qualified to decide regarding it whose criticisms I fear most; and I am especially desirous to bring it under your notice, as of all geologists the most thoroughly acquainted with those ancient formations which it professes partially to describe. I am, besides, desirous it should be known, and this, I trust, from other motives than those of vanity, that when prosecuting my humble researches in obscurity and solitude, the present President of the Geological So

ciety did not deem it beneath him to evince an interest in the results to which they led, and to encourage and assist the inquirer with his advice. Accept, honoured Sir, my sincere thanks for your kindness.

Smith, the father of English Geology, loved to remark that he had been born upon the Oolite,—the formation whose various deposits he was the first to distinguish and describe, and from which, as from the meridian line of the geographer, the geological scale has been graduated on both sides. I have thought of the circumstance when, on visiting in my native district the birth-place of the author of the Silurian System, I found it situated among the more ancient fossiliferous rocks of the north of Scotland,—the Lower Formation of the Old Red Sandstone spreading out beneath and around it, and the first-formed deposit of the system, the Great Conglomerate, rising high on the neighbouring hills. It is unquestionably no slight advantage to be placed, at that early stage of life when the mind collects its facts with greatest avidity, and the curiosity is most active, in localities where there is much to attract observation that has escaped the notice of others. Like the gentleman whom I have now the honour of addressing, I too was born on the Old Red Sandstone, and first broke ground as an inquirer into geological fact in a formation scarce at all known to the geologist, and in which there still remains much for future discoverers to examine

and describe. Hence an acquaintance, I am afraid all too slight, with phenomena which, if intrinsically of interest, may be found to have also the interest of novelty to recommend them, and with organisms which, though among the most ancient of things in their relation to the world's history, will be pronounced new by the geological reader in their relation to human knowledge. Hence, too, my present opportunity of subscribing myself, as the writer of a volume on the Old Red Sandstone,

Honoured Sir,

With sincere gratitude and respect,

Your obedient humble Servant,

HUGH MILLER.

EDINBURGH, May 1, 1841.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT

OF SCIENCE.

Wednesday, September 23, 1840.

SECTION C.-GEOLOGY AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

Mr Lyell in the Chair.

"Mr Murchison gave an account of the investigations and discoveries of Mr Hugh Miller of Cromarty (now Editor of the Witness), in the Old Red Sandstone. Various members of a great family of fishes, existing only in a deposit of the very highest antiquity, had been discovered by Mr Miller, Dr Fleming, Dr Malcolmson, and other gentlemen. M. Agassiz had found these fishes to be characterized by the peculiarity of not having the vertebral column terminated at the centre of the tail, as in the existing species, but at its extremity. He spoke in the highest terms of Mr Miller's perseverance and ingenuity as a geologist. With no other advantage than a common education, by a careful use of his means, he had been able to give himself an excellent education, and to elevate himself to a position which any man in any sphere of life might well envy. Mr Murchison added, that he had seen some of Mr Miller's papers on Geology, written in a style so beautiful and poetical, as to throw plain geologists like himself into the shade-(Cheers). The fish discovered by Mr Miller, one or two fine specimens of which were on the table, was yet without a name; and perhaps M. Agassiz, who would now favour them with a description of the class to which it belonged, would assign it one.

"M. Agassiz stated, that since he first saw, five or six years ago, the fishes of the old deposits, they had increased to such an extent as to enable them to connect them with one large geological epoch. This had been still farther established by their having been found in the same formation by Mr Mürchison in Russia, and Mr Miller in Ross-shire. These fishes were characterized in the most curious way he had ever seen. After briefly adverting to their peculiarities, as illustrated by the specimens on the table, M. Agassiz proposed to call Mr Miller's the Pterichthys Milleri. In the course of a subsequent conversation, the learned Professor added, that in lately examining the eggs of the salmon, he had observed that in the foetal state of these fishes they have that unequallydivided condition of tail which characterizes so large a por