336 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



seeni to differ from that figured by Sir Charles Lyell, in his Elementary Geo- 

 logy, as coming from the oolitic coal shale of Richmond, Virginia, Mr. Lea 

 proposed the names of P. ovata and P. parva, the first being about seven- 

 twentieths of an inch in transverse diameter. The latter is more rotund, and 

 about three-twentieths of an inch in transverse diameter, both being covered 

 with numerous minute concentric costas over the whole disc. 



Near to this locality and superimposed, Mr. Lea obtained a specimen of 

 impure dull red limestone, which contained, on a partially decomposed sur- 

 face, impressions presenting the appearance of foot-marks, somewhat like 

 Cheliclmus Duncani, Owen, figured by Sir "Wm. Jardine in his Ichnology, for 

 which Mr. Lea proposed the provisional name of Chelichnus Wymanianus, 

 after Professor "Wyman, of Cambridge, Mass. 



From the same formation and locality were procured the impressions of 

 plants. 



In the black Posidonia shales was found a single ganoid scale, which is 

 more like Pygopteris mandibularis, Agas., from the marl slate (lower per- 

 mian), than any other which had come under Mr. Lea's notice. There were 

 other obscure forms observed, which have not yet been satisfactorily found to 

 be analogous to any known forms, but which Mr. Lea hoped to be able to 

 make out, 



NEW AMERICAN FOSSIL FISHES, 



At the Albany meeting of the American Association, Dr. Newberry exhi- 

 bited a series of fossil fishes of great beauty and perfection of preservation, 

 which he said were derived from the carboniferous strata of Ohio from a 

 locality which he had discovered nearly two years since and which would 

 rival in the variety and beauty of its fossils the famous fish beds of Solen- 

 hofen or Monte Bolca, These fishes were, however, truly carboniferous, 

 occurring near the centre of the Ohio portion of the Alleghany coal field, 

 both geographically and stratigraphically. It was, therefore, to be com- 

 pared with the deposit of fossil fishes at Burdee House in Scotland, so fully 

 illustrated by Dr. Hibbert that in the Ohio deposit were represented with 

 every genus found in the limestones of Burdee House, with a single excep- 

 tion, while in addition there were several genera not yet found in Scotland. 

 The number of species was greater in the American than the Scotch de- 

 posits, and all were different. Nearly all the species had, however, a cha- 

 racter common to those of Burgee House in the elaborate ornamentation 

 of their scales and plates, in which they differed from most of the fossil 

 fishes of the coal series. He said the similarity of all, and the identity of 

 many, of the fossil plants from the coal strata of Europe and America had 

 been noticed, and now the general similarity of the fossil fishes still fur- 

 ther indicated the synchronism of the coal period on the two continents. 

 Dr. Newbcrry said these fish remains were found in a thin stratum of 

 cannel coal lying at the base of a thick bed of bituminous coal ; that there 

 was every reason to conclude that these fishes had inhabited a lagoon or 

 space of open water in the coal-producing marsh, as within a mile or two in 

 any direction the cannel coal and the fish remains ceased to be found ; that 



