EASTMAN: FISHES FROM UPPER EOCENE OF MONTE BOLCA. 



347 



specimen to which attention is now directed formed the subject of the earliest 

 pubhshed contribution to the Uterature of paleichthyology emanating from the 

 New World. 



The communication referred to is in the form of a letter written by the Rev. 

 Francis Byam under date of March 31, 1755, and read before the Royal Society of 

 I.,ondon in December of that year. It is printed in Volume XLIX (page 295) of 





J'liJksJhrni-.Va/.XLlr.TAB.R. p.ua 



ri-n- 



Fig. 4. Mene, novce-hispanice Eastman. (Type.) Being a reproduction of about one-half size of the 

 illustration given in the Philosophical Transactions, Vol. XLIX, Plate IX, 175.5. (Photographed 



by A. S. Coggeshall). 



the Philosophical Transactions of that body, accompanied by a steel engraving 

 which portrays the original specimen. This engraving is reproduced in fig. 4, 

 which is a little more than one-half the size of the original. As both the illustration 

 and the published account of the fossil fish have been overlooked by modern 

 ichthyologists, it may be of service to quote the following passage: 



'To WiUiam Fauquier, Esq., F.R.S. 



... As you have the honour to be a member of the Royal Society, I have 

 sent you, by Captain Barrett, in a box directed for you, what I esteem to be a great 

 curiosity. It is a stone, that was brought from a quarry, for a building in the 



