FOSSIL FISH. 425 



in fact, there does not appear to be a single one which belonged 

 to that element. His allotment of the species to the different 

 quarters of the globe seems to be equally destitute of proof, 

 for, in the great majority of his analogical references^ he is 

 decidedly erroneous. 



We must now dismiss with great rapidity the ichthyolites of 

 the remaining localities, respecting the great majority of which 

 nothing certain has been determined. Nothing positive, for 

 instance, as to species or genera, is known respecting those of 

 the Vicentine, or of Friuli. At Murazzo Struziano, however, 

 a very complete impression was found of a fish evidently abdo- 

 minal, which M. de Blainviile refers to Clupsea, and has named 

 Clupcea dentese ; it exhibited thirty-six or thirty-eight ver- 

 tebrae; the head is rather small, and the mouth is armed with 

 very strong teeth in both jaws. 



Two species of Clup^a, from Mount Libanus, have been 

 named and described by M. de Blainviile. The first is C. 

 brevissimus ; rather short in proportion to its breadth; the ver- 

 tebral column, concave towards the back, is composed of thirty- 

 one or thirty-two vertebrae, nearly equal, rather small, and with 

 weak spinous apophyses ; the mouth is large, and very much 

 cleft; the lower jaw a little the longest, and no trace of teeth ; 

 the gill-covers and the eyes are large ; there are at least eight 

 branchiostegous rays, pretty broad; the pectoral fins have 

 twelve or fifteen, and the ventral, somewhat in front of the 

 middle of the body, are small, and composed of six or seven 

 rays at most ; the dorsal fin, pretty nearly approached to the 

 head, is low, composed of sixteen rays, gradually diminishing, 

 and sustained by weak apophyses ; the abdominal cavity is 

 moderate, and the anal fin, which commences a little before 

 the conclusion of the dorsal, is weak, very low, and also long ; 

 the caudal is moderate in size and furcated. 



The other species is C. Bernardi. It is more elongated 

 than the preceding ; the vertebrae are thirty-six ; the ribs are 

 from twenty-two to twenty-four, and very slender ; the tail is 



