56 Dr. G. J. Hinde—A New Ordovician Sponge. 
There can be no doubt that this fish is new to science as a species, 
the only question remaining for consideration is that of the genus 
to which it should be referred. The Carboniferous genera to which 
it seems most closely allied are Hlonichthys and Acrolepis; but it is 
excluded from both by the very small size and thinness of the scales, 
and more especially from Acrolepis by the rays of the pectoral fin 
being articulated to their origins. 
So far as the smallness of the scales and the arrangement of the 
fins is concerned, there is a very considerable resemblance between 
the present fish and the early Mesozoic genus Myriolepis, as described 
originally by the late Sir Philip Egerton,1 and more recently by Mr. 
A. Smith Woodward.? But the condition, as to articulation, of the 
rays of the pectoral fin of Myriolepis does not seem yet to be known, 
and should its principal rays turn out, not to be articulated up to their 
origins as in the present fish, there is little doubt that a new genus 
must be constituted for the reception of the latter. 
Though it does strike one as slightly improbable that the same 
genus of Palzoniscide should persist from Carboniferous to Triassic 
times, I feel the setting up of new genera in this already most 
extensive family without absolute demonstration of its necessity 
becoming more and more distasteful. I therefore refer this interesting 
Trish Carboniferous paleeoniscid to the genus Myriolepis, under the 
name of M. Hibernicus, though it must be distinctly understood that 
this reference is only provisional and awaiting confirmation, or the 
reverse, by the further development of our knowledge of the type 
species of the genus. 
My thanks are due to Prof. Boyd Dawkins and Mr. Hoyle for 
the opportunity of examining and describing the specimen of this 
very interesting Carboniferous fish, which is preserved in the Museum 
at Owen’s College, as well as to Sir Archibald Geikie for permission 
to examine that at Jermyn Street. 
i EXPLANATION OF PLATE III. 
Myriolepis Hibernicus, Traquair, Coal-measures, Kilkenny, reduced one-fifth. 
ITI.—On Patzosaccus Dawson, Hinpr, A New GENUS AND SPECIES 
oF HExacTINELLID Sponge FROM THE QuEBEC GROUP (ORDO-, 
viciAN) at Lirrne Métis, QueBec, CanaDa. 
By Grorcs J. Hinpz, Ph.D., F.G.S. 
(PLATE IV.) 
1 1887 and 1888, Sir J. W. Dawson discovered in dark carbona- 
ceous shales of the Quebec group, exposed at Little Métis, on 
the north shore of the Lower St. Lawrence, some thin bands of rock 
largely filled with the remains of siliceous sponges, and similar 
fossils were found to be sparsely scattered in adjacent beds through 
a vertical thickness of forty feet. This discovery of an abundant 
sponge fauna at so low an horizon, in rocks previously considered 
1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1864, vol. xx. p. 2. 
2 A a Fossil Fishes of the Hawkesbury Beds at Gosfort’’? (New South Wales), 
pp. 7-11. . 
