60 ANNUAL REPORT OF 



tions the remarkable effects of earthquakes in ancient times, and 

 gives a particular account of the upheaval of an island in the 

 iEgean, parallel occurrences being the sudden formation of 

 Monte Nuovo, near Naples, in 1538, and of a new island near 

 Santorin, in 1707. All these considerations lend the color of 

 plausibility to the hypothesis that either seismic or volcanic dis- 

 turbances, or both together, stand in causal relation to the Boon- 

 ton fish beds. Nevertheless, the means at our disposal do not 

 permit us to push the hypothesis further, so as to arrive at a 

 demonstration of the real cause or causes. 



Progress of Palmchthyology. — Before closing this general ac- 

 count of the Triassic fishes of New Jersey, it may be of interest 

 to some to' take a brief retrospect over the history of that branch 

 of natural science which is concerned with the investigation of fos- 

 sil fishes. In so- far as this class of organisms was one of the 

 earliest to attract attention in the fossil state, it may be claimed 

 that palceichthyology is coeval with the broader field of palaeon- 

 tology in general. The earliest mention of fossil fishes in litera- 



"Posidonius says that at a time so recent as to be almost within his recol- 

 lection, about the summer solstice and at break of day, between Hiera [now 

 called Volcano] and Euonymus [one of the Lipari, not certainly identified], 

 the sea was observed to be suddenly raised aloft and to abide some time raised 

 in a compact mass, and then to subside. Some ventured to approach that part 

 in their ships ; they observed the fish dead and driven by the current, but being 

 distressed by the heat and foul smell were compelled to turn back. One of 

 the boats which had approached nearest lost some of her crew, and was 

 scarcely able to reach Lipari with the rest, and they had fits like an epileptic 

 person, at one time fainting and giddy, and at another returning to their 

 senses ; and many days afterwards a mud or clay was observed rising in the 

 sea, and in many parts the flames issued, and smoke and smoky blazes." 



A chapter in Pliny's Natural History (ii., 89), which is devoted to islands 

 that have been uplifted from beneath the sea, contains an altogether similar 

 account : "Opposite to us, and near to Italy, among the ^Uolian isles, an 

 island emerged from the sea; and likewise one near Crete, 2,500 paces in 

 extent, and with warm springs in it; another made its appearance in the third 

 year of the 163d Olympiad (B. C. 125) in the Tuscan gulf, burning with a 

 violent explosion. There is a tradition, too, that a great number of fishes were 

 floating about the spot, and that those who made use of them for food im- 

 mediately expired." 



Other well-known instances of the sudden destruction of fish life in enor- 

 mous quantities are those following the destruction of disturbances at Vera 

 Cruz in 1742, and at Sumatra in 1755. The recent history of tile-fishes off the 

 coast of Massachusetts is also extremely suggestive. 



