219 
now entirely removed, from behind Jersey City. It was of 
interest, as an examination of it showed that it was made up 
of material derived from the rocks of the immediate vicinity 
and had a bearing upon the subject of the genesis of our 
sandstones lately discussed at several meetings of this 
Society. 
The President, Pror. J. S. NEwserry, exhibited speci- 
mens of Polypterus Bechii and Calamichthys Calabaricus, Ganoid 
fishes from Africa. ‘These he said were of special interest, as 
they represented, on the African Continent, an ancient group 
of Ganoid fishes, once doubtless very numerous, but probably 
leaving no other descendants than these. In the same way 
the Gar-pike and the Dog-fish Lepidosteus and Ama are the 
only remnants of the ichthyic fauna which peopled the rivers, 
lakes and seas of North America in former geologic periods. 
These two African fishes are much more alike than the Dog- 
fish and Gar-pike, and are considered by some Zéologists as 
species of the same genus. An interesting fact in this con- 
nection is the discovery, in the interior of Australia, of what 
seemed to be a living species, or more than one, of a remark- 
able genus of fishes known heretofore by some large and 
strangely-formed teeth found in the Trias and designated by 
the name of Ceratodus. This latter was of much more re- 
markable structure than either of the fishes before mentioned, 
so much so that it was perhaps yet an open question whether 
it was fish or amphibian. Ceratodus is allied to Lepidosyren 
and the group to which they belong forms the connecting 
link between fishes and amphibians and is probably the group 
through which the transition from fishes to the higher classes 
of vertebrates took place, if the evolution hypothesis is correct. 
That the transition was not effected through the highest group 
of fishes, the T¢/eosts, is certain, as both amphibians and true 
reptiles existed before the T¢leosts came into being, unless, as 
Prof. Huxley suggests, the oldest group of all fishes the 
Placoderms, such as Cocosteus and Pterichthys were Teleosts 
allied to the modern Silurovds. 
Pror. H. Wurtz exhibited specimens of Utensils made of 
