60 PEOF. E. W. CLATPOLE O'N PTEEASPIDTAlf EISH IN 



Appendix. 



Former reported Discoveries of Fish-remains in A7nerican 

 Silurian Rocks. 



The discovery of fossil fish in the Silurian rocks of IN'orth America 

 has been announced on several former occasions ; but in every case 

 investigation has shown some mistake. 



Dr. l^ewberry, in his " Monograph on Possil Fishes " in the 

 ' Palaeontology of Ohio' (vol. i.), has alluded to four such instances, 

 and says that; these are aU that have come to his knowledge. They 

 are the following : — 



1. In the second volume of the 'Palseontology of New York' Prof. 

 Hall described and figured a large spine under the name of OncJius 

 Dewii, from the Magara group of Lockport, jS".Y. This is now, how- 

 ever, admitted to be a spine of a Crustacean. In the same place 

 Professor Hall alludes (without figuring them) to other species from 

 the Shaly Limestone of the Lower Helderberg and from the Clinton 

 group. What these were I do not know, but presume that they 

 proved to be of a similar nature *. 



2. Hugh Miller, in his 'Footprints of the Creator,' p. 143, 

 copying from the ' American Journal of Science,' 2nd ser. vol. i. 

 p. Q2^ gives a figure of a large fin-spine said to have been found in 

 the Onondaga Salt group. It has been proved to be a specimen of 

 MacJiceracanthus major from the Onondaga Limestone of the Corni- 

 ferous group. 



3. Messrs. N'orwood and Owen, in the 'American Journal of 

 Science,' 2nd ser. vol. i. p. 367, described a new fossil fish from the 

 Upper Silurian rocks of Indiana, and the error has been copied 

 several times by other writers. It was a head of Macropetalichthys 

 from the Corniferous Limestone. 



4. Dr. Newberry, quoting Sir Charles Lyell (' Travels in North 

 America,' 1842, vol. ii. p. 37), says that Sir Charles was informed 

 by Professor H. D. Eogers that he and his brother " had traced the 

 scales of fishes through strata of Clinton age from the south-western 

 part of Yirginia to the north branch of the Susquehanna in Penn- 

 sylvania." In the light of the facts recorded in the preceding paper 

 this is a somewhat remarkable statement ; but in the ' Geology of 

 Pennsylvania,' vol. ii. p. 824, Professor Eogers writes : — 



*' The earliest date at which actual fishes appeared in the Appa- 

 lachian or Palseozoic seas of North America was that of the Post- 

 meridian strata, numerous specimens of the ganoid class having been 

 recently found in the upper Cliff or Corniferous limestone of Ohio. 



* In this connexion a rather singular and surprising statement may be 

 noticed. Prof. Hall says (l. c. 1852) : — "In England we have positive evidence 

 of the existence of fish-remains in strata of the age of om' Trenton limestone and 

 Hudson-river groups." It is hardly necessary to add that this statement must 

 rest on some misconception and that no foundation for it has ever existed. 



