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1886.] Triassic Rocks at Weehawken, N. J. 245 
figure at the top marks the fossil layer of slate and the location 
of Mr. Braun’s find. 
The fossil remains taken from the slate comprise casts and 
impressions of plant-roots or root-like fragments, the lobate divis- 
ions of an aquatic plant, an enigmatical nut displaying its coaly 
and black nucleus, and numerous fishes in various stages of pres- 
ervation, and in positions that seem to throw a light upon the 
local circumstances of their entombment. Mud cracks reticulate 
the slate slabs in ramifying lines, the silent witnesses to processes 
along the shores of an ancient Triassic estuary, identical with 
those that produce to-day the same markings upon a sun-baked 
bar. 
One of the best examples of the fishes in Mr. Braun’s col- 
lection, now in my possession, is shown in the foregoing 
sketch. 
I think all the fish remains I have are identical with this one as 
to genus and species, and it appears identical with Palæoniscus 
latus Redfd. On a specimen, other than the one figured, the 
dorsal fin shows the coarse raylets attached to the anterior spine, 
and its position, although quite far back, does not correspond 
to the insertion given for Catopterus. The fishes are found lat- 
erally compressed and usually straight, but in some instances the 
creature ‘has become doubled and turned over on itself as if en- 
trapped while wriggling in its contortions to escape again to the — 
water, which receding left it exposed upon a muddy flat. 
Many have become macerated, and the surrounding shale is 
Strewn with their scattered scales, whose disconnected marks 
gradually become closer in one direction, leading the eye toa 
formless cluster of scales and head-parts. Most of the specimens 
Suggest that the fishes perished in numbers and were buried be- 
neath later films of detritus as they lay motionless upon their sides. 
The locality so lately discovered may reveal more of interest 
both as regards these fish in their zoological status, the character 
of their habitat and the manner of their death. I have found in 
these slates lenticular masses of a pulverulent and highly car- 
bonaceous material which yielded seven per cent of combustible 
matter, and would doubtless have reacted for phosphoric acid. 
They seem connected with the organic occupants of the rocks, — 
and may have arisen through their decomposition. 
In the sandstone below this slate Mr. Braun has found impres- 
