20 The Catopterus gracilis. 



longed to the order of Ganoids and a few to the Placoids of Agas- 

 siz; and it is remarkable that the vast majority of the fossil fish of 

 the succeeding formation, from the Carboniferous to the Oolitic, 

 consists, in like manner, of Ganoids, a family which, though so 

 rich in genera in the olden times, is of quite exceptional occur- 

 rence in the present creation. 



These fish belong to races, of which there have been left as their 

 living representatives on the globe, only two genera and about 

 seven species, viz., the Lepidosteus, or bony fishes of this country 

 and the Polypteriis of the Nile and Senegal, although seventeen 

 genera have been found fossil. 



The present might appear to be the culminating period in the 

 development of fishes, in respect to the number of ordinal forms or 

 modifications of the class. It represents, however, rather the re- 

 sult of mutation, depending upon the progressive assumption of a 

 more special type. 



The cabinet of the Meriden Scientific Association contains some 

 very fine specimens of the fossil fish known as the Catopterus gra- 

 cilis, which were procured by members of the Association at a 

 place called Little Falls, about eight miles east of Meriden and two 

 miles north of Durham Center. 



Fossil fish have been found in several places in Connecticut and 

 at Sunderland, Deerfield and West Springfield, Mass. ; in fact, with 

 the exception of the teeth and vertebrae of sharks, found in the cre- 

 taceous formation of the Alantic coast, the fossil remains of fishes 

 hitherto discovered in the United States have, for the most part, 

 been confined to the New Red-sandstone of the Connecticut river 

 valley. 



These fishes are in most cases found in bituminous shale, which, 

 in character, sometimes approaches a micaceous sandstone. The 

 shale generally forms the bank of the river several feet high and 

 the ichthyolites are most abundant in the lower part of the bed 

 which corresponds nearly with low water mark. A thin layer of 

 carbonaceous matter usually marks out the spot where the fish lay, 

 except the head, whose outlines are rendered visible only by irreg- 

 ular ridges and furrows. In some cases, however, satin spar forms 

 a thin layer over the carbonaceous matter, and being of a light 

 grey color, it gives to the specimen an aspect extremely like that 

 of a fish just taken from the water. 



The Catopterus gracilis was first described by Redfield.* 



*Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History, New York, 1837; p. 35. 



