60 J. W. DAVIS ON' FISE-EEMAINS FOUJfD IN THE 



Most of the fishes comprised in this list belong to the Elasmo- 

 branchii and Ganoidei ; but whereas the Elasmobranchii are generally 

 considered to be of marine origin, and the Ganoids rather to pertain 

 to fresh water, we have them both, in this case, fossil together, and 

 evidently deposited in the immediate neighbourhood of the spot 

 where they lived. The Sharks were of large size ; the spines of 

 Gyracanthus and Ctenacanthus are not uncommon, those of the 

 latter being the largest I have seen from the Yorkshire Coal-field ; 

 some of them were quite 3^ inches in diameter near the base. The 

 fossil remains of Megalichthys are also of very large size, many of 

 the scales being an inch in diameter, indicating fishes probably five 

 feet in length. Spines of Fleuracanthus and Orthacanthus, and the 

 teeth and other bones of Diplodiis, are frequently found. Of the 

 spines several species have been found, and are of such peculiar and 

 varied forms, as to leave little doubt that Fleuracanthus and Ortha- 

 canthus must be united to form one genus, with the Diplodus-iQeih. 

 also added. The remains of these genera are unique in richness, 

 and I propose to deal with them in a separate paper. By far the 

 greatest number of specimens, however, belong to the genus Coela- 

 canthus ; the remains of hundreds of these fishes have been obtained 

 from a comparatively small area in the most exquisite state of 

 preservation. Bhizodopsis is rare; about half a dozen specimens 

 comprise all found. The teeth of Ctenopty chins ^ Helodus, Cladodus, 

 and Petalodus are also very rare, so are the scales of Rhizodus and 

 the teeth of Ctenodus. A single tooth of Ctenodus elegans with a 

 few head-bones and ribs of a larger species comprise the specimens 

 hitherto found of this genus. 



There are two beds of Cannel Coal which in lithological and 

 pala3ontological characters bear so great a resemblance to the Cannel 

 Coal at Tingley, that it may be advisable to glance briefly at the 

 leading features of each for the sake of comparison with our own 

 beds and their fossils. 



In the Eeport of the Geological Survey of Ohio, Palasontology, 

 vol. i. p. 284, Dr. Newberry describes a bed of Cannel Coal which 

 bears a close resemblance to the one at Tingley. It occurs at 

 Linton, on the Ohio river. At the base of a thick seam of ordinary 

 Coal (no. 6) is a thin bed of Cannel Coal. The Cannel is 

 only local in extent, and on tracing the thick coal in various 

 directions the Cannel is found to disappear. After careful study of 

 the deposit, Dr. JSTewberry considers " that there was in this locality, 

 at the time when the coal was forming, an open lagoon, densely 

 populated with fishes and salamanders, and that after a time this 

 lagoon was choked up with growing vegetation, and peat (which 

 afterwards changed to cubical coal) succeeded to the carbonaceous 

 mud (now Cannel) that had previously accumulated at the bottom of 

 the water." The species of fish found in this Cannel are about twenty 

 in number, and the amphibians are equally numerous. The fishes 

 consist of nine species of Eurylepis^ a small tile-scaled Ganoid, two 

 or three species of Godacantlius (closely allied to C. le]}turus of the 



