Miscellanies. 201 
4. Fossil Fishes in Virginia; from WiiutaM C. Reprrevy.—William 
Kemble, Esq., of this city, has kindly placed in my hands a fragment of 
shale containing beautiful impressions of fishes, of which portions of 
twenty individuals can be made out on one side of the fragment, the size 
- of which does not exceed twelve by eight inches. It was brought to this 
city by Mr. George B. Cook, from the Virginia coal region, thirteen miles 
west of Richmond, and was obtained a few days since, about two hundred 
feet below the surface, and beneath one hundred and eighty feet of rock, 
in a new shaft which is excavating in quest of coal. All the impressions 
appear to belong to a single species, are four or five inches in length, and 
nearly resemble the Catopterus gracilis described in the fourth volume of 
the Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History. 
New York, April 6, 1838. 
5. Analysis of the scales of the Sossil Gavial of Caen, in Normandy ; 
Ms A. Connett, Esq., F. R.S. E., &c., in the Ed. New Phil. Jour. No. 46. 
Mr. Connell found the constituents of ‘the Caen scales to be as follows: 
Phosphate of lime, with a little fluoride of calcium, 78.59 
Carbonate of lime, - + 12.53 
Sulphate of lime, - - . - 1.96 
Phosphate of magnesia, : : Al 
Chlorides of potassium and soiled: . - 74 
Oxide of manganese, - - - A5 
Siliceous matter, - - - - 37 
Willer, So 2 - - . - 5.07 
99.82 
The author, from the above analysis, concludes that these scales were 
originally of the nature of bone, and in all probability analogous to the 
osseous scales of fishes; and hence the presence or absence of bone-earth 
im such fossil relics can be of no service in determining whether they had 
belonged to saurian animals or to fishes, as he at one time, from the usua 
views of chemists respecting the nature of recent saurian scales, had 
thought might have been the case. 
6. Interesting Bbisilt fonoid ta: Lanisinedi-ithe following is an ex- 
tract of a letter to the Editor, from W. M. Carpenter, A.M., M.D., 
dated Jackson, La., Feb. 6, 1838. The fossils herein described were 
found in the parish of West Feliciana, about 25 miles from this place, on 
a small stream which is called Little Bayou Sara, in a part of the country 
of Alabama across the lower part of Mississippi westward, until it strikes 
Lake Ponchartraim, continues around the eastern shores of this lake, and 
Vou. XXXIV.—No. 1. 26 
