” oO 
Antediluvian Zoology. 563 
Fishes. — 'The most common form in which they are found 
is compressed between the laminze of sandstones, schists, cal- 
careous slates, and Purbeck marble. Their teeth, scales, and 
vertebre are abundant in many formations between the lias and 
London clay, particularly in the latter, and are even yet more 
plentiful in the Suffolk crag beds. These teeth are commonly 
ascribed to varieties of sharks. Palates, or * déntes aac 
are found in the oolites, and are beautifully preserved i 
chalk. No animal remains are common to so many sae 
tions, from the transition limestone to the crag, as the spinous 
radii of some species of Balistes. 
Mr. Mantell has observed eighteen or more kinds of fishes 
in the Sussex chalk, and cul genera and species in the 
Tilgate stone. The mineralised remains of fishes, particularly 
towards the upper portion of our strata, are found to accord 
with existing genera, and even with some species, more than 
most fossils. Much remains to be done in this department of 
natural history. 
One fact like that observed in the Testacea, mentioned by 
several writers, is too interesting to be passed over, the con- 
centration of many genera of fossil fishes which are now dis- 
persed in various seas. A vast collection of impressions of fish 
have long been known to exist in the calcareous schist of 
Monte Bolca, many of which have been identified with living 
species. In M. Bozza’s collection, out of 100 known fishes, 4 
were ascertained to be similar to those living in the seas of 
Otaheite. 
In the Paris museum, containing 62 species, 28 are said to 
be commen to European seas; 14 to Indian seas; 2 to Afri- 
can; 13 to South American; and 5 to North American. 
In another collection, of 105 species, from the same place, 
M. Saussure decided that 34 resemble these of European 
seas; 39 Asiatic; 3 African; 18 South American; 11 North 
American. 
Recent observation and more critical examination have 
determined that a larger proportion than is here assigned may 
be classed with the inhabitants of our seas. 
Professor Sedgewick and Mr. Murchison discovered nume- 
rous fossil fish in the calcarec-bituminous schist of Caithness 
and the Orkneys. Some of these, on being submitted to the 
inspection of Baron Cuvier, were considered by him to be 
analogous to the bony pike. On examination of more perfect 
specimens, Mr. Pentland confirmed the conjecture of Baron 
Cuvier, and ascertained two new genera, one of which con- 
tains four, the other two, species of Ichthydlites. ‘They are 
BB 2 
