FISHES OF THE DEVONIAN AGE, 27 
municated freely with the ocean toward the southwest, though it was nearly 
inclosed by land, viz, a line of islands along the Cincinnati arch and the 
Canadian and Alleghany highlands. 
The remains of fishes in the Corniferous limestone early attracted 
attention. Mr. Joseph Sullivant, of Columbus, Ohio, was probably the first 
to notice and collect them, but he did not attempt to describe them. As 
early as 1836 he presented a cranium, which he obtained in his quarries at 
Jolumbus, to Marietta College, Ohio, and I subsequently made this the 
type of Macropetalichthys Sullivanti as a recognition of the value of his 
contributions to geology. 
In 1846 Dr. D. D. Owen and Dr. J. G. Norwood published’ a deseription 
of a new fossil fish from the Paleozoic rocks of Indiana. This fossil was 
very badly preserved and has since been lost, but there is no doubt it 
was generically identical with one of the best known of our Corniferous 
fishes, and therefore that the name Macropetalichthys then given must 
stand. 
Somewhat later Dr. R. P. Mann, of Milford, Ohio, became much inter- 
ested in the remains of fishes in the Corniferous limestone,.and made a fine 
collection of them, which he presented to the Wesleyan University, at Del- 
aware, Ohio. Quite a number of these, with others, sent to me by Prof. F. 
Merrick, of Delaware, and Dr. KE. 8. Lane, of Sandusky, Ohio, were de- 
scribed in a paper read before the National Institute, Washington, January 
26, 1857. 
In 1855 Prof. William Hopkins figured and described,’ but did not name, 
a spine from the Corniferous limestone of New York. This fossil was sub- 
sequently taken as the type of the genus Macheracanthus, and was shown 
to be the pectoral spine of a shark. 
The fossil fishes of the Corniferous limestone have been further de- 
seribed by the writer in the following papers: Annals of Science, vol. 1 
(1853); Proc. Amer. Assoc., 1853, p. 166; Bull. National Inst., 1857, p. 19 ; 
Am. Jour. Sci., vol. 34, 1862, p. 73; Pal. Ohio, vol. 1, p. 247; vol. 2, p. 1. 
‘Am. Jour. Sei., 2d series, vol. 1, 1846, p. 367. 
*Proc. Am. Assoc. Ady. Sci., 8th (Washington) meeting (1455), p. 287. 
