Dr. E. H. Traquair — Devonian Fishes of Canada. 15 



v. — notes on the devonian flshes of scaumenac bay and 



Campbelltown in Canada. 1 



By Dr. R. H. Traquair, F.R.S., F.G.S. 



THE researches of the officers of the Geological Survey of 

 Canada have brought to light, in the Devonian rocks of 

 Scaumenac Bay and of Campbelltown, a series of fossil fishes which 

 are of especial interest to the geologist as well as to the zoologist, 

 on account of the analogies which they bear to the fishes of the 

 Old Bed Sandstone of Great Britain. Principally collected by 

 Mr. G. H. Foord, these fishes have been described by Mr. J. F. 

 Whiteaves, 2 and are indeed remarkable for their beautiful state of 

 preservation, which enables them to thi*ow fresh light on many 

 points in the structure of these ancient forms. From a purely 

 geological standpoint their interest is not less, as we shall see. 



The Edinburgh Museum having been fortunate enough to obtain a 

 valuable collection of these fishes, I am enabled to supplement Mr. 

 "Whiteaves's descriptions, as well as to add at least two additional 

 species to the list. 



I. Fishes from the Upper Devonian of Scaumenac Bay. 

 Ctenodontid-e. 

 Phaneropleuron curium, Whiteaves. — As Mr. Whiteaves points 

 out, this species is distinguished emphatically from the Scotch 

 Ph. Andersoni by its comparatively short and deep outline, which in 

 this case is certainly not due to distortion. Some of the Edinburgh 

 specimens show the Ctenodont dentition very clearly, but in no 

 case have I seen the " smooth, conical and somewhat compressed 

 teeth," which Mr. Whiteaves mentions as arming both the upper 

 and under jaw. And here I must make an important correction. 

 In his second quarto memoir (1889) Mr. Whiteaves refers to a 

 fragment collected by Mr. Foord in 1881, in which the eye is 

 situated very far forwards and surrounded by a complete circle of 

 about 26 circumorbital plates. Referring also to the suborbitals 

 and preoperculum, which are also shown in the specimen, he says 

 that they are " exactly similar to the corresponding plates in 

 Eusthenopteron." Now, if we refer to the figure given of this 

 specimen (ib. pi. x. fig. 1), it will be seen that this exact similarity 

 is shared also by the anterior half of the cranial buckler which is 

 present, as well as by the maxilla, and the jugular plate. Moreover, 

 the orbit does not occupy that position in Phaneropleuron curium ; 

 for according to a specimen now before me, it is placed, as in Ph. 

 Andersoni, 3 comparatively far back, and not much in front of the 



1 Read before Section C of the British Association at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

 September 16th, 1889. 



2 Am. Journ. Sc. and Arts (3), xx. 1880 ; Canad. Naturalist, n. ser. x. ; Am. 

 Naturalist, xix. 1885 ; Canad. Nat. and Quart. Journ. Sc. n.s. vol. x. 1881. Mr. 

 Whiteaves's detailed descriptions are given in two quarto memoirs entitled "Illustra- 

 tions of the Fossil Fishes of Canada," from the Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, vol. iv. 

 sec. iv. 1886, and vol. vi. sec. iv. 1888. 



3 On the position of the orbit in Phaneropleuron Andersoni see Traquair, Geol. 

 Mag. Vol. Till. 1871, pp. 530-531. 



