262 ORGANIC REMAINS. 



scales, disposed in oblique rows. These scales are generally brittle 

 and easily detached; and are all covered with a dark brown or black- 

 ish enamel, giving the fossil a rich appearance. They are nearly 

 rectangular in the thickest part of the body, but become rhomboidal 

 towards the tail, where they also grow smaller. They are very hand- 

 somely imbricated, the middle of each scale lying over the junction 

 between two scales before it. The front of each scale, or rather, one 

 half of the front, is often more or less indented ; especially where the 

 scales are large. The tail has not been rounded, like that of the esox 

 osseiis, but sharp-angled and somewhat forked, like that oiesox stomtas. 

 The rays of the tail are composed of numerous small joints. The large 

 specimen. Fig. 8, has measured, when entire, two feet or more, in 

 length ; and about six inches or more, in its greatest breadth. The 

 Figure does not shew the whole breadth, nor the proper shape, of 

 the fish; but that of a pyritous nodule in which it is fixed. An 

 oblong piece of pyrites is seen attached to the surface of the 

 fish. The tail appears to have been about six inches broad, at its 

 termination. The imperfect specimen, Fig. 7, has been a smaller 

 animal ; and might be about eighteen inches long, when entire. The 

 fragment placed behind it has not belonged to it, but to another of the 

 same size. In that fragment are the vestiges of a fin, but it is out of 

 its natural position. In No. 7, and in a similar specimen, belonging 

 to Mr. George Watson, there is a pectoral fin, much bruised. 



Fragments of this kind of fish have frequently been found. 

 They were considered as glossopetrcB, or shark's teeth, till the speci- 

 mens here mentioned were discovered. 



Remains of fishes that seem to have belonged to the ray or skate 

 family (the genus raja), have been found near Whitby, in the alum 

 shale, particularly at Saltwick. Some specimens are very large; but 

 they are generally so confused and imperfect, that we have not given 

 a figure of any. One of our specimens might have been figured, to 



