19173 The Cretaceous Fishes of Gear d 



mouthed bay of Lompoc now filled to the depth of 1400 feet 

 with pure diatoms, containing multitudes of fishes, bones of a 

 few birds, petrels and waders, an occasional porpoise, a very 

 few shells and sea-worms, but no crabs or sea-urchins. 



For this extended work on fossils I was already 

 broken in, as twice before within fifteen years Dr. 

 Branner had brought from Brazil a very interesting 

 series of Cretaceous fishes w^hich he turned over to 

 me for study. I know of no more brain-racking effort 

 than the attempt to make old bones live again, and 

 especially to restore in imagination missing parts so 

 as to figure how the creature looked in life. In the 

 Serra do Araripi (province of Ceara) in eastern 

 Brazil is an ancient beach on which fishes were often Unique 

 stranded at low tide, some four millions of years ago. '^"'^ 

 Becoming then enveloped in fine silt which dried in '^'"'^^'"^' 

 the sun and gave them solidity, at next flood tide 

 they were buried by new deposits. In 1841 Agassiz 

 secured a number of these molds and described the 

 bones and scales of several encased fishes of different 

 species. Many similar concretions were found by 

 Dr. Branner. One of them, however, resembled a 

 baseball bat though flattened at one end so that 

 we suspected it of concealing a fish. Splitting it 

 carefully lengthwise we found this to be the fact; 

 and so well preserved was the ancient "Tenpounder" 

 that the black streaks along the sides were still 

 plainly visible. Often the encased animal was com- 

 pletely petrified — bones, scales, and fins being turned 

 into stone. 



c 711 :i 



