SOME REMARKS ON THE FOSSIL EISHES 

 OF MOUNT LEBANON, SYRIA. 



O. P. HAY. 



It is sometimes the good fortune of the archaeologist to carry 

 his excavations into the site of some long ago forgotten village 

 or city, and there to unearth the relics of its former inhabitants. 

 From these remains, perhaps scant}- and broken, he essays to 

 determine the manners and customs of the people, their religion, 

 the grade of their civilization, the nature of their intercourse 

 with the neighboring tribes, and perhaps to learn what anc ient 

 practices yet persisted and what new ones were coming into 

 vogue. 



To the palaeontologist the earth's crust, in its breadth and 

 thickness, is a burial ground from which he may exhume the 

 remains of the animals and plants that once lived on its surface 

 or in its waters. The words of Bryant, spoken of the races of 

 men, may truthfully be applied to other living things, 



But there are spots where the carcasses are sown thicker and 

 have been better preserved than elsewhere ; and to such places 

 the scientific birds of prey, who seek tor. and must usually be 

 satisfied with, fragmentary hones, and imprints ot skeletons, and 



such booty, they have visions of the swarms of animals, fat, sapid, 

 The Cretaceous periodis one of great interest to the palaeon- 



