GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 39 



The largest and most noted of the fossil fish of this 

 country belong to the division, 



CHONDROPTERYGIA, 

 Or Cartilaginous Fishes. 



The bones of one species of shark, upwards of forty 

 feet in length, allied to the Carcharias, have occasion- 

 ally been found in several localities. In Cuvier's 

 " Theory of the Earth, by S. L. Mitchell," p. 400, it is 

 stated : — " The skeleton of a huge animal was found on 

 the bank of the Meherrin river, near Murfreesborough, 

 N. C. It was dug out of a hill, distant sixty miles from 

 the ocean. Capt. Neville, and Dr. Fowler, who visited 

 the spot, gathered the scattered vertebrae which the ne- 

 groes had thrown out, and laid them in a row thirty-six 

 feet in length. If to this the head and tail be added, 

 the animal must have been fifty feet or more in length. 

 The former of these gentlemen enriched my collection 

 with two of the teeth and a joint of the neck bone : the 

 teeth weigh sixteen ounces each ; they are covered 

 with an ash-colored enamel, except at the roots where 

 they were fastened to the jaws ; the sides of the trian- 

 gles are six inches long, and the base is four inches and 

 a half across. The single vertebra weighed twelve 

 pounds and a half. ?? These fossils are at present in the 

 cabinet of the Lyceum of Nat. Hist, in New York. We 

 have recognized them as the remains of a gigantic spe- 

 cies of shark. The proteiform varieties presented by 

 the teeth of the individual sharks, render it almost im- 



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