628 Davis—On the Fossil Fishes of the Chalk of Mount Lebanon. 
The scales are well preserved, rhomboidal in form, thick, and covered with 
smooth, glistening enamel, thinning towards the posterior margin, which presents 
a jagged outline. Along the lateral line the scales are in fifty-two rows ; trans- 
versely there are across the thorax twenty-eight rows ; towards the tail this number 
diminishes to one-half. The scales diminish in size and are narrow on the 
abdominal surface. At the base of the pectoral fins and of the caudal the scales 
are small, closely-aggregated, and more or less rounded. 
This species is much smaller than Petalopteryx syriacus, Pictet (‘‘ Poissons 
fossiles du Mont Liban.,” 1850, p. 22, pl. ut., fig. 1), which was obtained from the 
soft chalk of Sahel Alma, but it possesses the characters as defined by M. Pictet; 
the tapering form, long dorsal fin, strong angular scales, and teeth of the anterior 
parts of the jaws long and pointed. The two species are readily distinguished. 
This description was omitted from its proper place before the reference to 
P. syriacus, Pictet (see p. 526), the fossil being then not available. 
Formation and Locality—Upper Cretaceous: Hakel, Mount Lebanon. 
Ex coll.—Lewis Collection, Natural History Department, British Museum. 
REMAINS OF A VERTEBRAL COLUMN. 
A portion of a vertebral column, found in the hard chalk of Hakel, is remark- 
able for the size and characters of its constituent elements. Remains of seven 
vertebree are preserved; they are all disconnected, but retain their relative 
positions. The exposed part of each vertebra is 0°8 inch in diameter; the entire 
diameter would be somewhat larger. The length cannot be exactly determined ; 
the pressure which displaced them, being applied diagonally, has laid the vertebrae 
one on the edge of the other, and they have been to some extent crushed; but a 
little under half an inch is probably correct. ‘The centrum was concave; the 
median part of the vertebree constricted to half the diameter of the ends; the 
whole strongly osseous, and supported by osseous bars extending between the two 
ends, and enclosing lacunz somewhat similar to those in the vertebra of some 
sharks. 
It is not proposed to designate this fragment; but as it indicates a fish of 
much larger size than any hitherto described, it appears desirable to record its 
occurrence. 
Formation and Locality—Hakel, Mount Lebanon. 
Ex coll.—Natural History Department, British Museum. 
