THE AQUARIUM BULLETIN 



49 



Ol)e Aquarium !!^uUetin 



^ubll5l)e6 montl)!^ In tl)e Interest of tl)e scientific 

 stu6^ of aquarltt anb allied subjects bj 



Ol)e ^rooKlYit Aquarium Society* "3nc, 



On the Government Collection of Fossil Fishes 



By Dk, R. W. Shufeldt 

 Membr. L'Alliance Scientif. Univer. de France. 



As is the case with so much other 

 material of the kind, the government 

 collection of Fossil Fishes is now to 

 be found in special rooms, set aside 

 for its keeping in the new United 

 States National Museum at Washing- 

 ton. Here it is arranged and 

 classified in convenient drawers and 

 cabinets, where it may be examined 

 and studied by students of ichthyo- 

 logy, who have obtained the necessary 

 permit from the Museum authorities. 

 Owing to the fact that this collection 

 has been a long time in the process 

 of formation, it is not surprising that 

 we now find it to be quite a 

 representative one, though not one 

 of great extent. Many of the fine 

 species of fossil fishes it contains are, 

 however, more or less characteristic, 

 and fairly represent the chief geolog- 

 ical horizons, from the Ordovician 

 period uy to comparatively recent 

 time. 



There are nearly two hundred type 

 specimens distributed through the 

 material, and they are of a class which 

 have been of the greatest possible 

 service to descriptive geologists and 

 students of ichthyic palaeontology. 

 A-Iost of the material has been acquired 

 through the eiTorts of our govern- 



ment collectors attached to exploring 

 expeditions, while not a small share of 

 it re]iresents what formerly belonged 

 in well-known private collections. 

 Finally, a still smaller part has been 

 purchased or obtained through 

 exchange, after the methods of all 

 museums, large and small. It is 

 among these last acquisitions that we 

 find some fossil fishes of foreign 

 lands. 



This collection has been handled, 

 studied, described, and catalogued by 

 ichthyologists and palaeontologists 

 of both past and present time ; so 

 that, through the publication oi all 

 this literature, the various specimens 

 in it are more or less knov.n to 

 scientific writers. 



I have examined some of the 

 specimens in the collection with more 

 or less care ; and about two years 

 ago, I made an eight . by ten photo- 

 graphic negative of a most superb 

 specimen of a then undescribed fossil 

 fish in that collection, which has 

 since been named Priscacara dartonae. 

 A reduced print from this negative 

 illustrates the present article. The 

 specimen, as will be seen from the cut, 

 is upon its side in the usual light- 

 colored matrix so characteristic of the 



