EGERTON ON A FOSSIL RAY FROM MOUNT LEBANON. 229 



the smoothness of the skin would present no obstacle to the passers 

 by, and possibly its colour may have contributed to render the 

 concealment more effectual. The position of the mouth forbids 

 the idea that this Ray buried itself in mud, as the Lophius and 

 other predatory fish are known to do. The difficulty of defence 

 being thus surmounted, we have still to devise how this fish pro- 

 cured its subsistence. It may be that it fed upon some of the 

 smaller and more helpless denizens of the deep ; but at the same time 

 I am inclined to believe, from a comparison of the oral apparatus 

 with the recent forms, that its food was not dissimilar. Some 

 of these forms, too, if found in a fossil state, would cause the zoolo- 

 gical reasoner full as great embarrassment as the subject under 

 discussion, from the absence of the ordinary provisions for self- 

 preservation so familiar to all. Yet the Creator of the Universe 

 has not formed them helpless ; so far otherwise, he has en- 

 dowed them with a subtle armoury, more powerful than the dental 

 chevaux-de-frise of the marauding shark, — more deadly than the 

 serrated lance of the fireflare, — more effectual than the speed of 

 the dolphin, or the aerial excursions of the flying-fish. I allude 

 to the electric apparatus of the Torpedo. The Lebanon Ray in 

 many points of structure has presented analogies with this genus ; 

 and although, in the absence of all positive evidence to the fact, 

 it would not be justifiable to infer that it was provided with a 

 similar organ, yet I do not conceive that in drawing attention to 

 this consideration in the passing allusion I have made above, I 

 have overstepped those bounds of probability which ought to be 

 rigidly observed by every observer in the rich and inexhaustible 

 field of nature.* 



3. On some New Species of Fossil Fish, from the Oxford Clay 

 at Christian Malford. By Sir Philip Grey Egerton, 

 Bart., M.P., F.R.S., F.G.S.; 



Through the kindness of Lord Northampton and Mi*. Pratt I have 

 had an opportunity of examining several specimens of fossil fish 

 found with the beautiful Ammonites and Belemnites already de- 

 scribed by Mr. Pratt and Professor Owen, in the Oxford clay, at 

 Christian Malford, near Chippenham. Some of these ichthyolites 

 are in an excellent state of preservation ; others are mere frag- 

 ments. Those genera I have been able to identify belong to the 

 Lepidoid and Sauroid families of the Ganoid order of Agassiz, viz. 

 Lepidotus, Leptolepis, and 'Aspidorhynchus. These three genera 



* In the accompanying plate, fig. 1. represents this fossil of its natural size, 

 and fig. 2. is a magnified view of part of the jaw. 



Q 3 



