232 UPPER, OR FLINTY CHALK. 



The specimens figured are of various forms, but do not appear to be 

 specifically distinct. 



Tab. xxxii. fig. 29, diflPers from the preceding, in having a greater 

 degree of convexity, in its ridges being transverse, more numerous and 

 delicate, and the depressions less deep : it is, perhaps, referable to a 

 different species. 



The conical teeth. Tab, xxxii. figs. 17, 21, 27, although not exactly 

 corresponding with either of those above described, may yet, in all 

 probabihty, be regarded as belonging to a fish of the same genus. 



Localities. Upper, and Lower chalk, in every quarry on the South 

 Downs*. 



Apodes. 



The fishes of this order approach very nearly to the Amphibia nantes 

 of Linne, and some of them resemble the serpent tribe. They are long 

 and slender, having a smooth skin, which is generally naked or covered 

 with small soft scales. Two species of fishes allied to the genus Murcena, 

 are the only animals of this order that occur in a fossil state in Sussex. 



112. Muraena? Lewesiensis. Tab. xxxix. fig. 11. Tab. xl. fig. 2. 

 A long cylindrical fish, of which neither the fins nor extremities have been 

 discovered, is one of the most frequent, but most imperfect of the Sussex 

 ichthyolites. The specimens are of a subcyhndrical form, rather flattened 

 by compression, from six inches to two feet in length, and about one inch 

 wide. They occur abundantly in the Upper chalk, and occasionally in 

 the siliceous nodules. They are, for the most part, perfectly straight; 

 but some specimens are undulated, as if the fish had been suddenly 

 enveloped in the chalk, while in a state of motion. The surface is covered 

 with small, delicate, smooth scales, confusedly mixed together; not one 



not being affixed to the jaws." He supposes them " to have been attached to the palate bones, 

 OS hyoides, &c. of fish of the genera Diodon, and Batistes. It was their office to crush the food, 

 fishes generally having teeth of detention in their maxillas." 



* About two years since, a block of chalk, containing upwards of a hundred of these 

 bodies, was discovered by the workmen in OfFham pit ; it was sold to a sti'anger, or its repre- 

 sentation would have formed a splendid embellishment to the present volume. 



