The Upper Silurian rocks of the Gutterford Burn, in the Pentland Hills, have for some time been known to contain Eurypterid remains, but the fossils procured from these beds—chiefly owing to the exertions of Mr Hardy of Bavelaw Castle, and Mr Henderson, late Curator of the Phrenological Museum—have never been submitted to a thorough examination. When, therefore, by the kind permission of Sir R Murdoch Smith, Director, and Dr E. H. Traquair, Keeper of the Natural History Collection in the Edinburgh Museum, I was given an opportunity of examining Mr Henderson's collection, which was acquired by the Museum some years since, I entered upon the work with the expectation of finding some new and interesting forms which would repay description. My expectations in this respect have been more than fulfilled, as the collection has yielded five undoubtedly new species, one of which I have made the type of a new genus. If to these one adds at least two other new species which are in the collection of Mr Hardy of Bavelaw, and which I hope to have the pleasure of examining and describing at some future time, one is justified, I think, in saying that the Gutterford Burn is unequalled among Eurypterid localities with regard to the variety of forms it has yielded. Unfortunately the bed which has yielded these specimens is limited in extent, and further work on it would entail quarrying operations on a somewhat extensive scale.
In 1892 I communicated to this Society an account of a collection of Eurypterids from the Upper Silurian rocks of the Pentland Hills, in which I described new species and a new genus. Since that time I have had the opportunity of examining two other collections from the same locality. One of these was formed with the aid of a grant from the British Association. The fossiliferous bed—for these remains occur in a single thin bed of rock—was laid bare, and a considerable amount of it removed and split up. In this latter work I was fortunate to get the assistance of Mr John Henderson, the original discoverer of the locality, and I am glad to have this opportunity of recording my indebtedness to him. A fair number of specimens was thus procured, which not only threw considerable light on the structure of some of the already described forms, but gave evidence of some species as yet undescribed. More important than this collection, however, was the one formed by the late Mr Hardie of Bavelaw Castle, who had for many years collected among the Pentland Silurians. His collection was, on his death, acquired by the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, and Dr Traquair kindly put the collection in my hands for examination. From the size of the collection I expected some new and interesting results, and have been far from being disappointed. Seven new species of Eurypterids have come to light and one Scorpion.
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Though a great deal has been written on the Eurypteridæ, and many points of their anatomy elucidated in the brilliant memoirs of Huxley and Salter, Hall, Woodward, Schmidt, &c, nevertheless many points of morphological importance remain obscure. This is perhaps to be attributed to the fact that nearly all the writers on this group have treated them rather from the systematic than the morphological standpoint. In dealing with remains so fragmentary and obscure as the majority of these fossils are, the value of some theory as to their relations among recent forms is enormous, both as suggesting points to be looked for and aiding in the interpretation of structures observed. The greater part of the work on this group was done before the arachnid relationship of Limulus was fully appreciated, and it is in the light of a possible relationship to this form, and also to the lower orders of terrestrial Arachnida, that it seemed to me to be worth while to revise the anatomy of the group. It has been necessary to include a certain amount of what is already well known in the description of the different genera, and I have taken special care to confirm, as far as possible, points which seemed to me to rest on insufficient grounds.
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