460 Davis—On the Fossil Fishes of the Chalk of Mount Lebanon. 
known fossil fish localities are described, but no further descriptions of fossil 
fishes are given. Sir Philip de Grey Egerton described the fossil Ray, Cyclobatis 
oligodactylus, in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. i., p. 225, 
Pl. V., 1845; and in 1849, M. Heckel had the opportunity to study specimens 
collected by M. Th. Kotschy (Abbildungen und Beschreibungen neuer und 
seltener Thiere und Pflanzen in Syrien, etc., versammelt von Th. Kotschy, heraus- 
gegeben von D.D. Fruzl. Heckel und Redtembacher, 1843—9). Two new species 
of Clupea are described, viz. C. macrophthalma and C. gigantea; the latter from 
a very imperfect and doubtful specimen. He established the genus Pycnosterinx, 
and described two new species pertaining to it, viz. P. discoides and P. 
russeggerii, and a specimen, afterwards identified by M. Pictet as a jaw of 
the genus Eurypholis, was described and figured under the name Isodus sulcatus. 
In 1836, M. Russeger, travelling under the protection of Ibraham Pascha, 
visited the Kloister of Sahel Alma, and induced the people there to collect the 
fish remains for him, by paying them a piaster for each specimen. This peculiar 
freak attracted the attention of the people in the neighbourhood, who communi- 
cated with the Prior, who in great wrath threatened to beat Russegger if he 
did not give up all the fishes he had collected. The position might have been 
a serious one had not Russeger taken out his pistols, on seeing which the Prior 
suppressed his wrath, and finally agreed for a further sum of money to allow 
the fossils to be retained. (Russegger, Reisen. B. III.) 
A most important and valuable contribution to the knowledge of the fossil 
Ichthyology of the Lebanon district is contained in the memoir by M. F. J. 
Pictet, Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at the Academy of 
Geneva, entitled ‘‘ Description de quelques poissons fossiles du Mont Liban, 
1850.” After briefly reviewing the observations contributed by previous authors 
on the subject, this learned ichthyologist proceeds to describe a collection of 
fossil fishes sent to the Museum at Geneva by M. Edmond Boissier. The 
specimens were collected from the two localities of Hakel and Sahel Alma. 
Previous authors expressed diverging opinions as to the geological age of the 
fish-beds of Lebanon. M. Agassiz hesitated as to whether they should be con- 
sidered as pertaining to the jurassic epoch or to that of the chalk; whilst 
M. Heckel was doubtful between the chalk and the tertiary formations. Pictet 
considered that the great number of extinct forms and the great difference between 
the fauna of the fish-beds and that existing in the sea at the present time made 
it impossible to attribute the remains to a tertiary epoch; on the other side, 
the entire absence of ganoid fishes appeared to indicate that they are of a 
period anterior to the jurassic, and must consequently have belonged to that 
of the cretaceous period. He further confirmed this opinion by the presence 
of fossil fishes of the genus Beryx and the remarkable Dercetis, which had been 
found only in the white chalk. This opinion has since Leen proved to be the 
