Article X. — ON A COLLECTION OF UPPER CRETA- 

 CEOUS FISHES FROM MOUNT LEBANON, SYRIA, 

 WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF FOUR NEW GENERA 

 AND NINETEEN NEW SPECIES/ 



Plates XXIV-XXXVII. 

 By 0. P. Hay. 



In accordance with an arrangement entered into between 

 Professor H. F. Osborn, Curator of the Department of Verte- 

 brate Palaeontology, and Professor R. P. Whitfield, Curator 

 of the Department of Geology, the writer has studied the col- 

 lection of fishes which was made in 1901 by Professor Alfred 

 Ely Day in the Cretaceous deposits of Mount Lebanon, Syria. 

 This collection consists of several hundred specimens of fishes, 

 besides a considerable number of crustaceans and a few mol- 

 lusks. The result of the examination of the fishes has been 

 the discovery of a considerable number of undescribed species 

 and various additions to our knowledge of the structure of 

 species already described. A large part of the collection and 

 nearly all of the new species come from a village called Hajula. 

 This may be regarded as really a new locality, since I have 

 been able to find it mentioned only once in Dr. A. S. Wood- 

 ward's Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum. 

 From a letter written by Professor Day to Professor Whit- 

 field we learn that Hajula and Hakel are each about twelve 

 miles nearly northeast of the seacoast town of Jebeil, the 

 ancient Biblus. Hajula is situated six miles south of Hakel; 

 and between the two villages there are two westwardly pro- 

 jecting spurs of Mount Lebanon and an intervening valley. 

 Professor Day estimates the elevation of these villages to be 



'■ The collection of fossil fishes, of which the new forms hereinafter described form a 

 part, was made by members of the staff of instructors of the Syrian Protestant Col- 

 lege at Beirut, Syria, during the vear igoi, and donated to the American Museum of 

 Natural History by the Rev. Jj. Stuart Dodge. They now form a part of the Museum's 

 exhibit in the Geological Hall as part of its chronological series, under the head of the 

 Cretaceous formation, in the foreign series of fossil forms. 



As Dr. O. P. Hay has recently been engaged in preparing a catalogue ot the fossil 

 fishes of the Museum collection and is familiar with the forms found at the Syrian lo- 

 calities, it has been considered advisable to place this collection in his hands for identi- 

 fication. While doing this he has found several interesting species not hitherto 

 known to science. These are described and illustrated in the following pages as a con- 

 tribution to the work of this department. — R. P. Whitfield, Curator of the Vepartment. 



[395] 



