116 



that the structure of the ovula, and the fecundation so peculiar in 

 this natural family, may be duly studied. 



A printed description of the fossil fish, mentioned in a 

 communication received from Dr. Joseph G. Norwood, on 

 the 18th February last, (see Proceedings of that date,) 

 drawn up by himself and Prof. David D. Owen, was com- 

 municated to the Society by the former. 



After giving its characters in detail, the authors remark upon 

 its geological position. It was split out of a layer of light gray 

 subcrystalline limestone, containing numerous Atrypa prisca and 

 Spirifer euruteines, associated with Strophomena euglypha, Pteri- 

 nea cardiiformis, Favosites spongites, Calymene hvfo, Tentaculi- 

 tes scalaris, and other fossils characteristic of the shell-beds 

 which form a part of the chain of rocks, in the bed of the Ohio 

 River, at the Falls, immediately under the water-limestone found 

 in digging the Louisville canal. On Lewis's Creek, however, the 

 water-lime is absent, or is represented only by a thin layer of 

 chert, and the black slate is found in the bank of the creek, not 

 four feet above the layer containing the fossil fish. This black 

 slate is most likely the equivalent of the Genesee slate, and not 

 of the Marcellus shale of the New York survey, since the underly- 

 ing layers, though they contain Onondaga and Corniferous fossils, 

 yield also many organic remains of the Hamilton group. 



The writers consider it to be evidently a ganoid fish, analogous 

 to those described from the Devonian system of Europe. On 

 the supposition that it belongs to a new genus, as would seem to 

 be indicated by the great size of the scutcheon plates and their 

 peculiar form, they propose for it the name o^ Macropetalichthys 

 rapheidolahis. They believe this to be not only the first instance 

 of finding scutcheoned fishes in this country, but that it establishes 

 the lowest geological position in which the remains of vertebrate 

 animals have been found, excepting defensive fin-bones in the 

 Corniferous group in New York, and the scales of fishes, traced 

 throughout the Clinton group of Pennsylvania and Virginia, by 

 the Professors Rogers. 



Dr. N. B. Shurtleff remarked upon some peculiarities of 

 the skeleton of the Asiatic elephant (Elephas indicus) be- 

 longing to the Society. 



