Fossil Fishes of Connecticut and Massachusetts, with a notice 

 of an undescribed genus. By John Howard Redfield, 

 Member of the Lyceum. 



Read December 12, 1836. 



With the exception of the teeth and vertebrae of sharks, 

 found in the cretaceous formation of the Atlantic coast, the 

 fossil remains of fishes hitherto discovered in the United States, 

 have, for the most part, been confined to the new red sandstone 

 of the Connecticut river valley. Through this formation 

 they are very generally diffused, having been found at Sun- 

 derland, West-Springfield, and Deerfiekl, in Massachusetts' 

 and at Glastonbury, Middletown, Berlin, and Durham, in 

 Connecticut.* They are in most cases found in the bituminous 

 shale, which, in character, sometimes approaches a mica- 

 ceous sandstone. These interesting remains have not, how- 

 ever, received that degree of attention to which they are en- 

 titled from their importance in a geological point of view. Few 

 attempts have been made to determine their species, and such 

 accurate published descriptions as might serve for a comparison 

 with European ichthyolites, have been entirely wanting. This 

 circumstance, however, will not excite surprise, when we reflect 

 that the fossil fishes of Europe, though found in all her museums 

 and collections, have, until lately, been for the most part ne- 

 glected and undescribed. Before we can venture to pronounce 

 upon the distinctive character of the natural productions of a 

 new world, we must, of course, be acquainted with those of the 

 old ; and it is for this reason, that in the course of investigation, 



* I have lately been informed that Professor Shepard has discovered fossil 

 fishes at Southbury, Connecticut, in the small basin of red sand stone, which 

 forms part of the valley of the Housatonic. 



