128 Notice of Dr. ManteWs Medals of Creation. 



A Buprestis from Japan, an inch long, was found converted 

 into chalcedony, with the antennas and portions of the legs finely 

 preserved, and the surface of the insect was covered with clus- 

 ters of minute concentric rings of chalcedony. 



Of Fishes, those now living exceed 8,000, and those in the 

 fossil state, as ascertained by Agassiz, exceed 1,500 ; and several 

 hundreds more remain undescribed. 



Agassiz has classified the fishes by their scales, which are the 

 most enduring part of their structure, and are the immediate 

 means of connection with the external world, like the hair in. 

 quadrupeds and the feathers in birds. Characters of fishes are 

 derived also from their bones, their teeth, and their tails, which 

 are a prolongation of the vertebral column. In most modern 

 fishes, the tail is rounded or divided into two equal lobes. In 

 some, as the shark and dog-fish, the upper lobe is prolonged like 

 a rudder, and the lower lobe is comparatively small and feeble. 

 While this unequal tail is rare among existing fishes, it is found 

 in all the fossil species that occur in the ancient secondary. The 

 rounded and equal lobed tail prevails in all the fishes from the 

 chalk upward, and the unequal lobed in all the fishes from the 

 carboniferous era, (and downward ?) 



The greater part of the fishes of the secondary formations be- 

 long to the family of sharks ; and the large rays or spines that 

 are found belonged to them, having served the double purpose 

 of defence, and as a support to the more delicate structure of the 

 fins — as a mast which is movable for the adjustment of the sails. 

 Immense numbers of teeth are found, especially of sharks ; for 

 the teeth being enamelled bone, they endure, while the cartila- 

 ginous framework of the shark has perished. The teeth are 

 sometimes of enormous size — from Malta and the United States 

 six inches long and five wide at the base, indicating sharks of 

 twice the size or more of the largest living species, (the white 

 shark,) which is sometimes forty feet long and upwards. A gi- 

 gantic torpedo was discovered in Monte Bolca, and a perfect ray 

 in Mount Lebanon, from which locahty the editors of this Jour- 

 nal have received slabs of dun-colored limestone, containing 

 schools of little fishes.* 



* By the kindness of the Rev. Eli Smith, American missionary at Beyrut. 



