No. 6.] DAWSON — CARBONIFEROUS FISHES. 337 



LOWER CARBONIFEROUS FISHES OF NEW 

 BRUNSWICK. 



By Principal Dawson. LL.D., F.R.S. 



The recent sinking of a shaft on the property of the Beliveau 

 Albertite and Oil Company on the Petiteodiac River, has exposed 

 a new and interesting deposit of fossil fishes in the rich bitumi- 

 nous shales of that district, which contain the remarkable deposits 

 of Albertite, described in my Acadian Geology, second edition, 

 p. 231 et seq. The bed affording these fossils is a dark brown 

 bituminous shale; and I am informed by Mr. E. B. Chandler, 

 to whom I am indebted for an interesting collection of the fish 

 remains, was from four to five feet thick. The specimens thus 

 presented, with those previously in my collection, and one kindly 

 given to me by Mr. F. Adams, of this University, and the valu- 

 able memoirs recently published by Dr. Newberry in the Ohio 

 Reports, and by Dr. Traquair in the Journal of the Geological 

 Society, enable me now to give a revision of the fishes of this 

 locality, as described by Dr. Jackson in his Report of 1851 on 

 the Albert mine, which I was unable to do in the second edition 

 of Acadian Geology, owing to the small number of specimens to 

 which at that time I had access. 



In the collections in my possession, I recognize, in all, five 

 species, three of them very small, and two of larger size. Of 

 these, one, which is unusually well preserved and is the smallest 

 of the whole, appears to be new, and I shall begin by describing it. 



Palceoniscus (Rhadinichthys) Modulus, N. S. — Length, five 

 to six centimetres ; greatest breadth, 15 to 17 millimetres — the 

 proportion of length to breadth being^about five to one and a half. 

 Head, oval and obtuse ; details not preserved, except that the 

 bones are sculptured with fine waving lines. Body gracefully 

 curved, and upper lobe of tail long and slender. Pectoral fins 

 small, with stout, unjointed rays. Ventral not distincly preserved, 

 but apparently small and nearer to pectorals than to anal. Dorsal 

 and anal of moderate size and opposite each other. Caudal very 

 heterocercal, with the lower lobe sharply pointed. Fins with 

 well developed fulcral spines, especially large at the base of 

 the caudal. Scales of the sides rhombic, coarsely toothed on the 

 posterior edges and elaborately sculptured with flat, scaly ridges, 



