The species, however, was a different one from any yet found at Cromarty.[V] [Footnote V: There are three species of _Glyptolepis_--_G. elegans_, _G. Leptopterus_, and _G. microlepidotus_.] The _Cheirolepis_, or scaly pectoral, forms the representative of yet another family of the Lower Old Red Sandstone, and one which any eye, however unpractised, could at once distinguish from the families just described. Professor Traill of the University of Edinburgh, a gentleman whose researches in Natural History have materially extended the boundaries of knowledge, and whose frankness in communicating information is only equalled by his facility in acquiring it, was the first discoverer of this family, one variety of which, the _Cheirolepis Traillii_, bears his name. The figured specimen (Plate VI., fig. 1) Agassiz has pronounced a new species, the discovery of the writer. In all the remains of this curious fish which I have hitherto seen, the union of the osseous with the cartilaginous, in the general framework of the creature, is strikingly apparent. The external skull, the great shoulder-bone, and the rays of the fins, are all unequivocally osseous; the occipital and shoulder-bones, in particular, seem of great strength and massiveness, and are invariably preserved, however imperfect the specimen in other respects; whereas, even in specimens the most complete, and which exhibit every scale and every ray, however minute, and show unchanged the entire outline of the animal, not a fragment of the internal skeleton appears. The _Cheirolepis_ seems to have varied from fourteen to four inches in length. When seen in profile, the under line, as in the figured variety, seems thickly covered with fins, and the upper line well nigh naked. The large pectorals almost encroach on the ventral fins, and the ventrals on the anal fin; whereas the back, for two thirds the entire length of the creature, presents a bare rectilinear ridge, and the single dorsal, which rises but a little way over the tail, immediately opposite the posterior portion of the anal fin, is comparatively of small size. The tail, which, in the general condition of being developed chiefly on the lower side, resembles the tails of all the creature's contemporaries, is elegantly lobed. The scales, in proportion to the bulk of the body which they cover, are not more than one twentieth the size of those of the _Osteolepis_. They are richly enamelled, and range diagonally from the shoulder to the belly in waving lines; and so fretted is each individual scale by longitudinal grooves and ridges, that, on first bringing it under the glass, it seems a little bunch of glittering thorns, though, when more minutely examined, it is found to be present somewhat the appearance of the outer side of the deep-sea cockle, with its strongly marked ribs and channels, the point in which the posterior point terminates representing the hinge. (See Plate VI., fig. 2.) The