No. 1.] WHITEAVES — DEVON CAN FISHES. 31 



slightly curved. Fin rays of the lower lobe of the tail supported 

 by nine or ten osselets, each of which is articulated bj a trans- 

 verse joint to one of the modified haemal spines. On the anterior 

 or lower side of this lobe and nearest to the anal fin, the osselets 

 are very stout and greatly elongated, but they rapidly decrease 

 both in length and size as they approach the posterior termina- 

 tion of the vertebral column. The haemal spines of the tail, like 

 .the osselets, are contracted at or about the middle, and expanded 

 -at each end, but the haemal spines are invariably much shorter 

 than the osselets. All the fin rays, including those of the tail, 

 are composed of a great number of rectangularly divided, short 

 •.articulations. Fin rays of the second dorsal and anal fin each 

 proceeding from three osselets of unequal size, which are articu- 

 Jated to short prominences, separated by corresponding concave 

 emarginations, in the posterior half of the greatly expanded outer 

 extremity of a broad interspinous apophysis, in the manner shewn 

 in the accompanying wood-cut.* 



Outline of interspinous apophysis and osselets of the second 

 dorsal fin of Eusthenopteron Foordi. Natural size. 



EUSTHENOPTERON FOORDI. Sp. Nov. 



Specific Characters. Fish large, attaining a length of two 

 feet or more ; first dorsal fin very long, narrow and tapering to 

 an acute point behind. 



In the sculpture of its cranial plates, in the shape and orna- 



* In a paper read before the Natural History Society, of which an 

 abstract is given on page 440 of the last volume of this journal, these 

 bones, which were then nearly covered by the matrix, were supposed 

 to be the supports of the ventral fins, in consequence of their general 

 resemblance to the so-called ischium and metatarsals of Asterolepia, as 

 figured and described in Hugh Miller's <= Footprints of the Creator." 

 Their true nature, however, became at once apparent after a subse- 

 quent removal of part of the matrix. 



