530 Davis—On the Fossil Fishes of the Chalk of Mount Lebanon. 
rays, apparently about the same length of 2°3 inches; the rays are fine, articulated 
at short intervals, and dichotomize three or four times, so that the distal extremity 
of the fin is furnished with numerous small rays capable of very wide expansion ; 
the pectoral fin in the figure is closed together. The ventral fin has its origin 
immediately behind the head on the abdominal surface; it has eighteen rays, 
2°5 inches in length, strong at the base, but repeatedly dividing. The anterior 
ray is rather thicker than the succeeding ones, and it and the second one do 
not apparently become divided, as the remainder do. In front of the large 
ventral fin there are short subsidiary fins, consisting of six or eight rays 0°5 inch 
in length; it may be a part of the ventral fin, if not it is difficult to understand 
its position and meaning. There is no evidence preserved on any of the 
specimens that the members of this species were possessed of scales; from the 
thin film which marks the surface of the fish it is very probable that the scales 
were, if present, very thin and delicate. 
This species may be distinguished from Cheirothrix libanicus, P. and H., 
by its more robust form and larger size; the head, in proportion to its length, 
is considerably higher than in C. libanicus, and the vertebra are fewer in 
number, and, at the same time, thicker and stronger in this species. I propose 
to distinguish it specifically by appending the name of Lewisii to that of the 
genus in honour of Professor Lewis, who, as already stated, was its discoverer. 
Formation and Locality—Soft chalk: Sahel Alma, Mount Lebanon. 
Ex coll.—Lewis Collection, British Museum (Natural History Department), 
London. 
Genus. Sphyreena. Burocu. 
Sphyrena amici, AGASstz. 
S. amici. Acassiz, L., 1844. ‘ Rech. sur les poiss. foss. ,” 
pl. x., fig. 3. 
S. amici. Picrer and Humperr, 1866. ‘Nouv. rech. sur les poiss. foss. du Mont 
Liban ,” p. 51. 
vol. v., pp. 8 and 97, 
This species was established by Agassiz upon a fragmentary specimen of 
the jaws of a fish in the collection of M. Amici, which recalled to some extent 
the dentition of Sphyreena, but differed in the teeth being much larger and 
having a pyramidal form. The representation of the head, given in the figure 
in “‘ Poissons fossiles,” may be that of one of the species of the genus Eurypholis, 
since founded by Pictet. 
