FOSSIL FISHES. 41 



dry it, as a staple article of food for winter use. Its length does 

 not exceed nine inches. It is frequently met with in a fossil state 

 enclosed in concretionary nodules, of Newer Tertiary age, on the 

 coast of Greenland and in Pliocene (?) drift on the banks of the 

 Ottawa River, in Lower Canada. 



The Clupeidce — "Herrings " (Fig. 58) — so abundant in the seas 

 around our coasts at the present day, are first met with in the 

 Gault of Folkestone, represented by the genus Thrissopater. Halec 

 is found in the Chalk of Bohemia ; Leptosomus, Opisthopteryx, 

 Spaniodon, Rhinellus, Scomhroclupea and Clupea in the Upper 

 Cretaceous of the Lebanon ; Clupea also occurs fossil at Monte Bolca ; 

 at Glaris, and in the Miocene of Ulm in Wiirtemberg ; whilst 

 SpatJwdactylus, Crossoynathus, Platinx, Coeloyaster, JEngraulis, and 

 Chanos are found in the slates of Glaris; at Monte Bolca and at 



Fio. 5S. — The Common Herring (Clu2 ea Tiarengus), living in the North Atlantic 



Licata in Sicily. Hemitrichas occurs in the Tertiary of Northern 

 Italy, and Alosa in the Infusorial Earth of Oran in Algeria. 



There are many species cf the Herring {Clupea) met with in the 

 Lebanon Cretaceous rocks, but they are all small fishes, the 

 largest being about the size of our common Sprat. 



Owing to some physical change in the conditions of the sea at 

 the time these deposits were being laid down, these fishes appear 

 sometimes to have been suddenly overwhelmed by fine calcareous 

 mud and to have perished in shoals. This is well shown by several 

 slabs of a fissile Limestone from Hakel near Beyrout (exhibited in 

 the cases), which are covered with hundreds of their remains. 



The BathytlirissidcB are perhaps represented in the Eocene 

 formation by the genus Notceus from the gypsum quarries of 

 Montmartre. 



The Ghirocentridcd are found fossil in the Chalk of Comen in 

 Istria and in the Lebanon where the genus Chiroccnt rites occurs. 

 Remains of a fish, allied to Chirocentrus, have been met with fossil 

 in the Tertiarv lignites of Padang in Sumatra. 



