On Cretaceous Fishes from Mount Lebanon. 485 



heavier ; the top of the skull is much flattened, especially 

 over the fronto-parietal constriction, where it is also somewhat 

 depressed. 



The two small unicuspid teeth are subequal in size, the 

 hindermost only being slightly larger in cross-section. 

 Though the label records that this shrew was " found dead," 

 there can be little doubt that its demise had not long taken 

 place, for the skin is in perfect preservation throughout and 

 reflects great credit on the collector, the fur being like 

 shininsr velvet. 



LXl. — Notes on some Type Specimens of Cretaceous Fishes 

 from Mount Lebanon in the Geneva Museum. By A. SMITH 

 WOODWAKD, F.L.S. 



When Professor F. J. Pictet,in collaboration with Mons. A. 

 Humbert, published an extended and revised memoir on the 

 Cretaceous fish-fauna of Mount Lebanon in 1866 *, he was 

 still unable to elucidate further some of the more problematical 

 fishes which he had already described in his original memoir 

 on the subject in 1850 f. The much later researches of Davis f, 

 based upon the Lewis Collection, also failed to contribute many 

 facts of importance to our knowledge of these doubtful forms, 

 and did not refer to Pictet's type specimens in the Natural 

 History Museum of Geneva. During a recent study of the 

 Cretaceous fish-fauna in question, I have therefore visited 

 Geneva for the purpose of examining Pictet's original collec- 

 tion ; and, thanks to the kindness of Dr. Maurice Bedot and 

 Dr. Weber, I am now able to add a few interesting facts 

 concerning some of the imperfectly understood types, regarded 

 in the light of our present knowledge. 



1. Pelalopteryx syriacus, Pictet, op. cit. p. 22, pi. iii. fio-. 1. 

 The unique type specimen of this species is very inade- 

 quately described and imperfectly figured by Pictet. The 

 fish is displayed chiefly in side view on a small slab of fissile 

 limestone from Hakel, but the trunk and dorsal fin are for 

 the most part indicated only in impression. The hinder part 

 of the cranial roof is well preserved and suggestive of that of 

 Atnia, with large parietal bones in contact mesially, and a 



* Pictet & Humbert, ' Nouvelles Reeherches stir les Poissons Fossiles 

 du Mont Liban ' (Geneva, 1866). 



f F. J. Pictet, 'Description de quelques Poissons Fossiles du Mont 

 Liban ' (Geneva, 1850). 



\ J. W. Davis, " The Fossil Fishes of the Chalk of Mount Lebanon in 

 Syria," Trans. Roy. Dublin Soc. [2] vol. iii. (1887), pp. 457-636, pis. xiv.- 



