58 FEOF. E. W. CLATPOLE OI^T PTERASPIDIAN EISH IN 



Traces of Fish in the Onondaga Red Shale. 

 About 1000 feet lower in the Onondaga group I have found two 

 or three thin beds containing comminuted scales. They are asso- 

 ciated with other beds containing in abundance Leperditia alta. 

 They are so thin and fragmentary that I have been unable to make 

 a complete examination of them. They consist, so far as I have 

 determined their structure, of homogeneous material destitute of 

 bone-cells and canalicules, but resembling in all respects the solid 

 layer of Palceaspis. From their condition and the appearance of 

 the rock, I have been sometimes inclined to consider them coprolitic 

 in origin. In any case they carry back the existence of fish by an 

 interval represented by about 1000 feet of strata. 



Traces of Fish in the Iron Sandstone. 



Nor is this quite the whole. Underlying the E,ed shale by about 

 350 feet, and consequently about 700 feet below the relics last 

 mentioned, is the Iron Sandstone, a bed of hard coarse material, the 

 position of which I have determined (in the paper already referred 

 to) near the middle of the Clinton group, and at least 900 feet below 

 the Ore Sand-rock, a well-known horizon in Pennsylvania, containing 

 numerous Clinton fossils, for example — 



Beyricbia lata, Vanuxem. 

 Ormoceras vertebratum, Hall. 

 Calymene Clintoni, Vanuxem. 



Its horizon is consequently beyond dispute. 



In this sandstone I have found a thin layer closely packed with 

 broken plates som.ewhat similar to those last mentioned, but in better 

 condition. They are very thin, but almost every well-preserved 

 fragment shows a superficial striation closely resembling that of 

 Palceasins. Accompanying them are a few fine spines much like 

 those above described under the name 0. pennsylv aniens. For these 

 I propose the name Onclius clintoni (p. 61, fig. 6). 



Besides the actual relics of fish already mentioned from the Iron 

 Sandstone, the bed is charged with small white pellets about as 

 large as peas. An examination of one of these by Mr. A. S. 

 M'^Creath, Chemist to the Pennsylvania Survey, gave the following 

 result : — 



Partial Analysis of the '• White Spechs " in Iron Sandstone. 



Phosphorus 6*478 



EepresentiBg Phosphoric Acid 14-857 



Phosphate of Lime 32'39 



I infer therefore the coprolitic nature of these pellets, and the 

 evidence thus obtained is confirmatory of the statements already 

 made. 



An examination of the appended Table of strata (p. 59) will sum- 

 marize to the eye the results here given, and will bear out the 

 assertion made at the outset that we now have evidence of the ex- 

 istence of fish in Pennsylvania at an earlier date than in any other 

 part of the world (Conodonts of Pander excepted). 



