EASTMAN : CATALOG OF FOSSIL FISHES IN CAENEGIE MUSEUM. 351 



en resulte avec la faune de Solenhofen." " Les Poissons Foss. &c., dans le 

 Bugey,"p. 3. 



The medium in which organic remains are preserved in the calcareous and 

 bituminous deposits of southeastern France has not the same fineness as that of 

 the Bavarian lithographic stone, hence the more delicate details are less exquisitely 

 portrayed in the form of impressions than at the famous locality of Solenhofen. 

 Nevertheless the perfection in which most of the hard parts are preserved in the 

 rock is truly marvellous. The chief difficulty with which vertebrate paleontologists 

 have to contend is the accidental distortion or displacement of parts owing to 

 pressure of freshly deposited sediment during fossilization. 



A brief resume may be offered at this point concerning earlier contributions 

 to our knowledge of the Jurassic fish-fauna of the Bugey. Local geologists appear 

 to have become interested in collecting fossil remains from this region as early 

 as the second decade of the nineteenth century, and credit for having discovered 

 the fish-bearing beds of Cerin is awarded by later writers to M. Jules Itier, who began 

 in 1821 the preparation of a geological map of the Department of Ain. The con- 

 clusions reached by this excellent observer after many years of patient effort were 

 finally published in a communication entitled " Memoirs sur les roches asphaltiques 

 de la chaine du Jura."^ 



In 1838 a civil engineer and geologist, named M. Drian, brought together a 

 small collection of fish-remains from the quarries of lithographic stone of Cerin 

 in the commune of Marchamp (Ain), and some eight years later these remains 

 passed into the hands of M. Victor ThioUiere of the University at Grenoble, who 

 at once became deeply interested in their investigation, and whose labors were 

 unfortunately cut short by death before his final memoir was completed. It is 

 affirmed by Professor ThioUiere's associates, MM. Falsan and Dumortier, that the 

 beginning of our knowledge of the Cerin fish-fauna is traceable to the lively curiosity 

 aroused by the collection of the I;yonese geologist, Drian. The latter, in 1838 

 as stated by these authors, " decouvrit les belles empreintes de poissons de la 

 carriere de Cerin, commune de Marchamp (Ain) ; puis en 1846 11 les communiqua 

 a V. ThioUiere. L'examen de ces echantillons fut le point de depart des per- 

 severantes et remarquables recherches de ce dernier savant, qui, pour s'occuper 

 uniquement de I'etude de cette riche faune et pour combler une lacune restee 

 dans les travaux geologiques fran>;ais n' hesita pas a abandonner le trace de la 

 carte geologique du departement du Rhone." 



Two short notices were published by M. ThioUiere during the years 1848-50, 

 the second of which contained a description of certain reptilian remains from the 



1 Bull, de la Soc. de Statistique de I'Isere, Vol. II, 1839, p. 128. 



