310 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



sessed of sufficient leisure, I am sure that most interesting facts and 

 consequences will be developed by their observations." 



DISCOVERY OF FOSSIL FISH IN THE COAL FORMATION OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 



DR. C. T. JACKSON, during the past year, has discovered a large number 

 of well preserved specimens of fossil fish in the coal formation of Albert 

 county, N. B. In a letter to the editors of Silliman's Journal he says : 

 " You may feel interested in knowing that I have made out some of 

 the genera, and found new species of fossil fishes, and that the 

 Paleoniscus occurs abundantly associated with aquatic plants ; also 

 that Lepidodendron, near if not exactly identical with the L. gracile, 

 Br., is found, with the fishes and with scattered fish-scales in the same 

 piece of the shale. Broad flat leaves, like those of palms, occur also in 

 the fish-shales of the coal mine, and a curious blistered leaf is extremely 

 abundant in all parts of the fish strata. These I at last traced to a 

 stem. They appear to be new species, and remind me of our aquatic 

 floating plant, the bladder-wort of our ponds. 



" The occurrence of immense quantities of well preserved coprolites of 

 fishes confirms the idea of Agassiz, that the heterocercal-tailed fishes 

 swam close to the bottom. ; for, otherwise, the form of such materials 

 could not be preserved ; for they were entire in the mud which ulti- 

 mately enveloped them. There are herbivorous fishes associated with 

 those that ate them, and the excrements of some tell the tale that some 

 of the fishes were carnivorous. Some of the coprolites I have seen 

 connected with the anus of the fish, appearing as if extruded by com- 

 pression of the fish. Some of the fish appear to have been dead and 

 partially putrid when they were enclosed in the strata ; others evidently 

 struggled hard against adverse fortune, erected their fins strongly to 

 guard themselves from some imagined swallower ; while others wiggled 

 and squirmed in vain to free themselves from the tenacious inud which 

 embalmed them in their last struggle. In fact, these fishes are literally 

 embalmed, and not petrified, the bitumen which so richly charges the 

 marly or soft clay slate or shale preserving in the most delicate manner 

 every scale, fin, and the minutest markings ; the scales retain their 

 silvery hue, slightly tinted yellowish brown by the bituminous mat- 

 ter." 



At the Boston Natural History Society, June, Dr. Jackson stated 

 that at the South Joggings coal mine he had had an opportunity of 

 comparing the Stigmaria with the roots of Sigillaria, and had found 

 them unlike each other. The Stigmaria also is found in the sand- 

 stone, not in the under clay. 



Dr. Jackson described the interesting appearance of the shores of 

 the bay at this locality, through a distance of five miles, presenting a 

 complete geological section of the strata. These are inclined at an 

 angle of 20, and show the trunks of trees imbedded in them at various 

 depths. He himself saw a flattened stem of Sigillaria, 20 feet long, 

 and he was assured by the miners that it extended at least 40 feet 

 further into the rock. As there is no sign of decomposition, it would 

 seem that the sand must have been rapidly deposited upon them ; and 



