414, BASHFORD DEAN. 
upon these kindred forms as representing distinct phyla, early 
divergent from a primitive chordate ancestor. And it is there- 
fore evident that, before Teleosts can be conclusively shown to 
be of Ganoidean descent, it becomes necessary to demonstrate 
that well-marked transitional characters exist not only in their 
structures, but in their ontogeny. 
It has accordingly been my object in the study of Amia to 
determine its developmental relationships. For in the ontogeny 
of this most Teleostean Ganoid there seemed evidently the key 
to the solution of the entire problem—on the embryological 
side—of Teleostean descent; and, conversely, the degree of its 
developmental unlikenesses to the types of sturgeon and gar- 
pike could not fail to prove suggestive. 
Embryonic material of Amia was to be obtained at Pewaukee, 
Wisconsin, a locality which has long been known as an ex- 
ceptionally favorable spawning ground. It was here that 
Allis, Ayers, Strong, Ecclesheimer, and Filleborn had suc- 
ceeded in securing developmental material, and this locality 
appeared, therefore, far more reliable than Black Lake, St. 
Lawrence County, New York, where, from my preceding studies 
on Lepidosteus, I was but moderately sure of success. In 
order to undertake the collecting trip, I was enabled through 
the kindness of President Low, of Columbia College, to leave 
my duties as early as May 14th of the present year. Proceed- 
ing directly to Wisconsin, I was fortunate enough to secure 
eggs and larve by May 17th, and on May 19th had the 
opportunity of observing the spawning fish and to secure the 
earliest cleavage stages. Cold and rainy weather then proved 
favorable to my studies, for it retarded the development of 
the eggs, and gave me an opportunity to observe the living 
material, and to prepare the figures of those stages especially 
which in surface view (as my studies of Acipenser and Lepido- 
steus! had taught) could not well be examined in the fixed 
material. 
By the time of my visit, however, the spawning season had 
1 1895, Dean, ‘On the Early Development of Gar-pike and Sturgeon,” 
‘Journal of Morphology,’ vol. xi, No, 1. 
