Townshend M. Hall — Fossil Fish in N. Devon. 411 



Proceeding to the south and east Parliamentary divisions of the 

 county (which, for geological purposes, it is more convenient to unite 

 under their old name of South Devon), the Carboniferous rocks 

 appear to be equally destitute of fish. In ''The History of the 

 Discovery of Fossil Fish in the Devonian Eocks of Devon and 

 Cornwall," by Mr. W. Pengelly, F.E.S.,^ reference is made to a 

 paper read in 1843 by the Eev. D. Williams, before the Eoyal Geol. 

 Society of Cornwall,^ in which the following passage occurs : " Mr. 

 Parker, jun., late of Exeter, found a beautiful tooth in the Posidonia 

 Limestones of the Coddon Hill grit series, at Doddiscomb Leigh, 

 north of .Chudleigh, which Professor Owen pronounced to belong to 

 a genus of fishes hitherto found only in the Urals." In answer to 

 my inquiries, Mr. Pengelly has been so kind as to inform me that, 

 besides the above extract, he knows of no published notice of fish 

 remains in the Carboniferous formation of any part of Devon or 

 Cornwall. 



In several of the other Carboniferous areas, both in England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland, fish are not uncommon, whilst in Belgium 

 they are extremely rare ; the unequal distribution of their fossil 

 remains resembling, in fact, what may be observed with regard to 

 the habits of modern species. An entire absence of fish in the 

 Carboniferous series of Devonshire would probably have afi"orded 

 but little surprise to any one who had studied the conditions under 

 which the rocks have been formed, and the contortions to which they 

 have been subjected. The equivalents or representatives of the Coal- 

 measures, Millstone-grit, Mountain Limestone, and Carboniferous 

 shales, which together occupy the area from Dartmoor, on the south, 

 to Barnstaple, on the north, have afforded only 46 species of fossils, 

 out of which number, as will be seen by the following table, no less 

 than 26 belong to the Vegetable Kingdom. 



Actinozoa 1 Cephalopoda 6 



Brachiopoda 5 Echinodertnata 3 



Lamellibranchiata 4 Flantce 26 



Nucleobranchiata 1 — 46 



To these I have now the pleasure of adding a fish of the genus 

 CcdlacantJius, and have also obtained evidence, from scales, of two 

 other species as yet undetermined. The honour of the first dis- 

 covery is due to Mr. W. Porter, of Pilton, who on July 7 presented 

 me with a portion of a Carboniferous nodule, containing a fish 

 measuring 6-25 inches from the end of the snout to the extremity 

 of the caudal fin, and 1-85 inches in breadth. The scales are covered 

 with minute striee. 



I at once submitted the fossil to Mr. E. Etheridge, F.E.S., who 

 informs me that it is nearly allied to Cmlacanthus granulosus, 

 Agassiz, from the Permian beds of the North ; whilst the scales 

 resemble those of C. elegans, Newberry. Unfortunately there are 

 no teeth visible, nor pectoral fin. It may safely be called a new 

 species. 



^ Trans. Devon Assoc, vol. ii. pp. 425, 426. 



2 Trans. Royal Geol. Soc. of Cornwall, vol. vi. pp. 122, 138. 



