J. W. DAVIS ON A BONE-BED IN THE LOWER COAL-MEASURES. 339 



32. PALiEONISCUS. 



I have found no good specimen of this usually abundant genus ; 

 occasionally detached scales and teeth are found which exhibit its 

 peculiarities. 



33. CcELACANTHUS LEPTURUS, AgQSS. 



The remains of this species are fairly numerous, and indicate a 

 fish from 12 to 15 inches in length ; and as the specimens figured by 

 Prof. Huxley in dec. xii. of the 'Memoirs of the Geological Survey' 

 are only 4 to 5 inches long, the present examples may be regarded 

 as large. All my specimens are disarticulated ; as single bones they 

 are very perfect ; and many of the external ones exhibit most beau- 

 tifully the sculpturing peculiar to the genus. Of the bones forming 

 the head are found the hyomandibular and palato-quadrate jugular 

 plates, ramus of lower jaw with teeth, opercula and frontal bones, 

 bones forming the pectoral arch, and large interspinous bones con- 

 necting the unossified vertebras with the dorsal fin-rays. A number 

 of bones presenting very much the appearance of vertebras, but of 

 a more cruciform shape, were doubtless the ossified centres from 

 which were suspended the branchiostegal rays ; some examples show 

 the rays in situ. Fragments of the rays exhibit ossified processes 

 developed along the two flattened edges of the ray, which possibly 

 served to support the gills. The ossified walls of the air-bladder are 

 occasionally found ; one specimen measures 6 inches in length by 3 

 in breadth. 



34. Ctenodus ellipticus, Hanc. & Atthey. 



Rare. Two or three teeth, a few head-bones, and ribs. 



35. Ctenodus tuberculatus, Hanc. & Atthey. 

 Teeth. 



LABYRINTHODOBTTS. 



36. Vertebras and other bones of Labyrinthodonts, recognized by L. 

 C. Miall, Esq., as those of Lo.vomma, have been found. They are 

 rare. 



Discussion. 



Sir Philip Grey Egerton remarked upon the advantage accruing 

 to geological progress by the activity of local observers, as furnished 

 by the detection and thorough working-out of this bone-bed, which, 

 being only half an inch thick, would in all probability have entirely 

 evaded the notice of geologists not resident in the immediate dis- 

 trict. Local observers (he did not mean mere collectors, but men 

 who knew how to follow out a course of investigation indicated by 

 the local phenomena noticed by them) ought in every way to be 

 encouraged. He said that OncJius, as now restricted, is essentially 

 an Old-Red type, but extends up into the Carboniferous Limestone, 



