CHAPTER I.* 

 FISH OF THE CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. 



M. AGASSIZ, besides the few carboniferous fish he has figured 

 and described, gives a long list of manuscript names of fishes of 

 this formation in the 3rd vol. of his ' Poissons Fossiles/ but being 

 unaccompanied by any definitions or figures,, it gives no informa- 

 tion of the characters of the species, lior even secures their pri- 

 ority to the author ; however, of the thirty unpublished species 

 which he there names from the carboniferous limestone of Ar- 

 magh, I have, through the kindness of Capt. Jones, R.N., M.P., 

 been enabled to study the original specimens, and become well- 

 acquainted with all except the Cladacanthus paradoxus and Cri- 

 cacarvthus Jonesii, of which I could learn nothing : admitting 

 those twenty-eight then as already established, I can state that 

 they are quite distinct from any of the following species. 



I have great pleasure in acknowledging my obligations to 

 Capt. Jones, not only for much valuable information on the 

 fishes of this period, and access to his collections both in London 

 and Dublin, but for the loan of many of the most interesting 

 species described below, which I was thus enabled to draw and 

 examine at leisure. To Mr. Griffith of Dublin I am also indebted 

 for the loan of some interesting forms from the lower carboni- 

 ferous shales of Ireland. The Rev. W. Stokes of Caius College, 

 Cambridge, allowed me to select a large suite of new and inter- 

 esting forms from his Armagh collections, and having given me 

 the opportunity of drawing and describing them, they were de- 

 posited in the collection of that University, whence I have also 

 described a few species from the Derbyshire limestones collected 

 by Mr. W. Hopkins, F.G.S. &c. To the Rev. Prof. Clark of 

 Cambridge, and also to Mr. Anthony of Caius College, Cam- 

 bridge, I am infinitely indebted for the use of their magnificent 

 microscopes, and for the kindness with which they took the 



* The substance of this Chapter was read, and drawings of all the species 

 exhibited, before the Cambridge Philosophical Society, June 5th, 1848. The 

 species date from the * Annals and Magazine of Natural History ' for July 

 and August 1848. 



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