350 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 
Some time was spent during the early summer of the year 1910 in making a 
preliminary survey and general inventory of the collection of fossil fishes as a 
whole, after which two large suites of specimens were set aside to serve as material 
for detailed investigation, the results of which will probably be incorporated in 
special monographs to be published either independently by the Carnegie Museum, 
or in coéperation with the Museum of Comparative Zoélogy at Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts. One of these suites consists of fishes from the Upper Eocene of Monte 
Bolca, and the other of fishes from the Upper Jura of Solenhofen. Preliminary 
to the preparation of more elaborate papers based upon this material, it seemed 
desirable to Dr. Holland to publish systematic catalogs of the specimens from 
Monte Bolea and Solenhofen, which would serve the purpose of making known to 
ichthyologists and others interested in these groups the extent and variety of ma- 
terial which is represented in the Carnegie Museum; and also of placing on record, 
go as to be immediately available, any special notes, comments, or observations 
in regard to various specimens which might be found to possess unusual interest, 
Or to elucidate new or imperfectly known features which from the point of view of 
distribution or otherwise might appear noteworthy. 
In response to this suggestion of Dr. Holland, the present Catalog of Upper 
Eocene Fishes from Monte Bolca has been drawn up, its general plan and arrange- 
ment following somewhat closely the admirable model set by Dr. A. 8. Woodward 
in his “Catalogue of Fossil Fishes in the British Museum”; due account being taken, 
however, of recently proposed changes in the classification. In some cases generic 
and family diagnoses have been amended in the light of fresh discoveries. Also, 
by way of affording a comparative estimate of the extent of the resources possessed. 
by the Carnegie Museum, the actual number of representatives of various rare 
species preserved in the British and Carnegie Museums are set down side by side. 
No invidious comparison is thereby intended, but it seems proper to the writer to 
call attention to the fact that the western world has acquired through the generosity 
of Mr. Carnegie a paleontological collection which could not possibly be dupli- 
cated except at enormous expenditure of both money and time, and which in 
some respects rivals at least one of the great, collections of the Old World. The 
student on this side of the Atlantic has therefore at his command unsurpassed facili- 
ties for reference and investigation. 
The following contribution is a systematic account of the material in the 
Museum representing the Eocene fishes from Monte Bolca. A similar catalog 
of the Jurassic fishes from Solenhofen is in preparation. For references to the 
principal literature dealing with the ichthyic fauna of the Kocene of northern Italy 
