REPORT ON FOSSIL FISHES. 21 
No. 2 is the posterior part of a fish 14 inch in length, being cut off just 
in front of the posterior dorsal fin, of which feeble traces are present. Behind 
this, the caudal vertebral apophyses, interspinous bones, and fin-rays are shown 
in a good state of preservation. Eighteen rays may be counted in the upper 
part of the caudal fin; not so many are seen in the lower part, but they 
are evidently not all preserved. No scales are shown. 
No. 3 is a portion of a fish, deficient in all the fins save some traces of 
the anterior dorsal and of the ventral, and in all probability belonging originally 
to a specimen of about the same size as No. 2. The scales are pretty well 
shown, and these seem proportionally larger than in Coelacanthus lepturus ; 
they are ornamented with delicate ridges, which are proportionally fewer and 
wider apart than in the last named species, although they follow the same 
general arrangement in converging towards the middle line of the scale. The 
head is considerably crushed ; two bones are, however, very distinctly seen, 
and demand special attention. One of these is the right operculum dis- 
located from its place, and thrust away to a position close above the cranial 
shield. It has the usual trigonal shape of the operculum of Ccelacanthus, but 
what is undoubtedly its external surface is quite smooth, and devoid of the close- 
ridged ornament found in Ceelacanthus lepturus. The other bone (fig. 3) is that 
which in Colacanthus lepturus has been determined by Messrs Hancock and 
ATTHEY as the largely developed angular element of the mandible, and this, 
instead of the fine close thread-like striation of the same bone in that species, 
is marked on its outer surface only by jour slightly oblique, comparatively 
coarse, and distant prominent ridges. 
No. 4 (fig. 1) is a very pretty specimen, showing as it does the vertebral 
apophyses and the remains of the ossified air-bladder with great distinctness. 
It is 3 inches in length, of which the head occupies 2 inch. The bones 
of the cranial roof display the same smoothness on their outer surfaces as the 
operculum in No. 3, and some coarse ridges are seen on a fragment of the 
angular element of the mandible. Beneath the lower jaw is seen the impres- 
sion of the internal surface of a jugular plate of a narrow form, its length 
being 4. an inch, and its breadth hardly more than ;4,. In the body twenty- 
four neural spines, bifurcated proximally, may be counted as far as the 
commencement of the hemal spines; the bones of the caudal region are 
somewhat disturbed. Below the abdominal part of the vertebral axis the 
air-bladder is indicated by a black shining film ; the scales agree in character 
with those of No. 3. The first dorsal, the principal caudal, and some remains 
of both ventrals, as well as of the pelvic bones, are exhibited, but do not call 
for special remark. 
No. 5 is the somewhat distorted anterior part of a specimen which must 
have originally been of a larger size than any of the foregoing. It is chiefly 
