284 Mr Council's Analysis of Fossil Scales 



I by no means intend to argue from this, that the ancient fish 

 of the old red sandstone must necessarily have been analogous 

 to one or other of these recent fishes. That is a point I leave 

 to M. Agassiz, and other naturalists qualified for the task. 

 Indeed, whilst the Perch, and perhaps the Chaetodon, belong 

 to the Ctenoidean class of Agassiz, we should probably, I sup- 

 pose, look for so ancient a member of the finny tribes as an ex- 

 isting occupant of the old red sandstone, in one or other of 

 the two older classes, although the dull aspect of the fossil 

 scales, as well as their chemical composition, would seem to ex- 

 clude their possessor from the Ganoideans. But these are 

 points for others to resolve. All I feel entitled to state with 

 comparative confidence is, that there appear to be reasonable 

 grounds for holding, that the external covering of the fossil fish in 

 question had an analogous chemical constitution to that of the 

 two recent Acanthopterygeans referred to, whether it was allied 

 to them in other respects or not. 



In a recently published popular work by a scientific author, we 

 are told, that " horny scales of fishes, and dermal bones of croco- 

 dilean animals, are preserved in the same lias with the bones of 

 Ichthyosauri.""* Notwithstanding the high authority due to 

 statements coming from such a quarter, it is much to be regretted 

 that the above statement was not accompanied by some farther 

 explanation. Numerous recent and fossil fish-scales have been 

 examined by Mr Hatchett, M. Chevreul, the late lamented Dr 

 Turner, and myself, comprehending a considerable varietv of ge- 

 nera or species, such as the Salmon, Carp, Shark, Lepisosteus, 

 Perch, Chaetodon, and Sturgeon, amongst recent fishes, and the 

 Megalichthys, Dapedium politum, &c. amongst fossil fishes, and 

 in all of these, without a single exception, the quantity of bone- 

 'earth was found to be considerable; and I am not acquainted with 

 any other special examination of fish scales than those referred to. 

 It is therefore hardly to be expected that such a general state- 

 ment, as that " horny scales of fishes," understanding that 

 expression to have a similar meaning with another in the same 

 passage, " horny scales of lizards," are found in the lias, 

 should be admitted without some account of the methods and 

 results of chemical examination. The occurrence of even recent 

 * Geological Bridgewater Treatise, II. 22. 



