80 Reviews — J. W. Davis — Scandinavian Cretaceous Fish. 



with " ignorance, assumption, and conceit " as we are, we humbly 

 confess that on this side the Atlantic we have never produced any- 

 thing that would, for sweet reasonableness and smoothness of 

 persuasion, stand a moment's comparison with the gentlemanly 

 polemics of Mr. S. A, Miller, Cincinnati, 0. 



II. — Mr. James W. Davis on Scandinavian Cbbtaceous Fishes. 



" On the Fossil Fish of the Cretaceous Formations of 

 Scandinavia." By James W. Davis, F.G.S., F.L.S. Trans. 

 Eoy. Dublin Soc. [2] vol. iv. pp. 363-434, pis. xxxviii.-xlvi. 

 (November, 1890.) 



OF all extinct fish-faunas, that of the Cretaceous period is gradually 

 becoming the best known, on account of the abundance in 

 which remains are discovered in every part of the world. A large 

 proportion of these remains are too imperfect for precise determina- 

 tion ; but they suffice, at least, to make known the geographical 

 distribution of the principal types, and the fossils of a few areas — 

 e.g. Britain, Westphalia, Syria, Brazil, and Western North America 

 — are so admirably preserved as to form definitely determined 

 standards for comparison. Mr. Davis' new Memoir is the latest 

 contribution to the subject, and comprises a beautifully illustrated 

 account of the Upper Cretaceous Fishes of Southern Sweden, with 

 its adjacent islands, and the neighbouring shore of Denmark. 



Apart from incidental references, the Cretaceous fish-fauna of 

 this northern region has hitherto remained quite unknown, and 

 ichthyologists are much indebted to the Curators and Professors of 

 the Scandinavian Museums and Universities for entrusting all their 

 collections to a specialist for elucidation. Mr. Davis' researches are 

 based upon materials from the Swedish State Museum, the Swedish 

 Geological Survey, and the Universities of Lund and Copenhagen. 

 On the whole, the specimens are of a very fragmentary character, 

 but most of them are at least genericall}' determinable, and many 

 appear to be specifically identical with well-known forms from 

 Britain and other areas. The great interest of the collection consists 

 in the fact, that while it is in part derived from truly Senonian 

 horizons, the majority of the specimens were obtained from the 

 Danian series. Some of the species, therefore, are of a decidedly 

 Tertiary character. Prof. Bernard Lundgren supplies important 

 stratigraphical information which is tabulated at the end of the 

 memoir ; and from this table may be perceived at a glance the geo- 

 graphical and geological range of the thirty-four species described. 



Most of the fossils under discussion, as might naturally be 

 expected, are Elasmobranch teeth ; and the author's introductory 

 remarks deal chiefly with the classification of the Cretaceous Lam- 

 nid^. While adopting to a large extent the arrangement formulated 

 in the British Museum Catalogue of Fossil Fishes, Mr. Davis prefers 

 to revert to the Agassizian conception of Otodus and Odontaspis, 

 and is uncertain whether any ichthyologist hitherto has philosophi- 

 cally determined the limits of CarcJiarodon. The principal difference 



