236 Reports and Proceedings. 



coal-basins in comparison with the Coal-formations of England, 

 North America, or even Prussia. 



England has - - - - 8,960 square miles of coal. 

 North America ... - 100,528 „ 

 Province of Silesia in Prussia - 1,280 „ ,, „ 

 Austria (as near as possible) - 1,200 „ „ „ 

 The whole produce of coal of all formations in Austria and Hun- 

 gary amounted during 1868, in round figures, to 6,300,000 tons. 



G. L. G. 



Geological Society of London. — March 6, 1872.— Prof. 

 Duncan, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. — The following com- 

 munications were read: — 1. " FrognatJiodus Guntheri (Egerton), a 

 new Genus of Fossil Fish from the Lias of Lyme Eegis." By Sir P. 

 de M. Grey-Egerton, Bart, M.P., F.E.S., F.G.S. In this paper the 

 author described a new form of fossil fish, having a broad premaxil- 

 lary plate somewhat resembling the incisor tooth of a gigantic 

 Eodent, a single maxillary plate like that of Callorhynckus, and a 

 mandibular dental apparatus closely resembling that of Cochliodus. 

 For this form he proposed the establishment of the new genus 

 Prognaihodus, and named the species P. Guntheri. Ischyodus John- 

 soni, Agassiz, also probably belongs to this genus, as it agrees with 

 P. Guntheri in the characters of the premaxillary teeth. The author 

 was doubtful as to the exact position of this genus, which had a 

 head extended in a horizontal instead of a vertical plane, suggesting 

 a resemblance to Zygcena, but covered with hard plates like the head 

 of a sturgeon, and exhibited in the dental apparatus the curious 

 combination indicated above. 



Discussion.— Dr. G-iinther pointed out the interest attaching to the dentition of 

 this fossil fish as being an additional evidence in favour of the connexion between the 

 Ganoid and Chimseroid forms. The existence of three teeth instead of one on each 

 side of the jaw, as in Ceratodus and others, presented in it a generic character ; but 

 the type was still the same. On one point he slightly differed from the view of the 

 author, and that was as to the application of the terms maxillary and premaxillary to 

 the teeth. He thought the former belonged rather to the pterygo-palatine arch, and 

 that the teeth in the front of the jaw should be regarded as vomerine. He illustrated 

 this by reference to the jaws and dentition of sharks, Chimferoids, and'Certain Ganoids. 

 In these the teeth, instead of being connected with the maxillary and premaxillary 

 bones, were, in fact, connected with the pterygo-palatine arch. He considered that 

 this furnished additional grounds for including all three forms in one subclass. 



Mr. Etheridge made some observations as to the horizon in the Lias in which 

 these fossil fishes occurred. He believed that nine out of ten of the Lower Lias 

 species came out of the upper part of the BiicJdandi limestone series. At the base 

 of the cliff at Pinhay, Lyme Regis, are the black shales of the Rhsetic beds ; above 

 them the White Lias, in which there are no fish, though they occur in the same 

 horizon elsewhere ; above these a series of shales, with Ostrea, and above these again 

 shales and limestones with Lima gigantea and Ammonites BucJdandi, the whole 

 forming the Bueklandi series. The fish -beds, some 8 or 10 feet thick, contain about 

 eighty species of fishes. Above this horizon fishes are almost unknown in the Lias 

 of Dorsetshire. At Barrow fish also occur in the Bueklandi series, though somewhat 

 lower down. In other cases fish-remains seemed also restricted to certain horizons ; 

 and the exact position of such remains as these was, in his opinion, an important 

 feature in determining their distribution both in time and space. 



