Dr Fleming on the Remains of a Fish found in Coal, 315 



The organism, of which views of the sides are given in 

 Plate IV. figs. 1 & 2, is upwards of nine inches in length and 

 five inches in breadth at the widest part, and where thickest 

 not exceeding two inches and a half. It is unfortunately but a 

 fragment, as neither head nor tail were found or observed at 

 the time. The dorsal and ventral ridges are incomplete, and 

 there are no traces of fins. 



The scales have nearly all the same shape, whether they oc- 

 cupy a dorsal or a more ventral position. The rhombic form ge- 

 nerally prevails, especially among those which preserve their re- 

 lative position, and have been least acted upon by compression. 

 The exposed part of the scale is smooth, glossy, and minutely 

 punctate. Another portion, and probably that which has been 

 covered by the imbrication of the neighbouring scales, has a 

 dull and slightly rough surface, with an intervening groove at 

 its junction with the glossy or exposed part. This appendage 

 to the scale occupies an angle and two contiguous sides, and 

 gives a marked character to the organism, when found detached. 



The section of the specimen brought into view, as I had an- 

 ticipated, the vertebral column, extending through its whole 

 length, eighteen divisions of which can be readily traced. The 

 vertebrae, where they do not appear to be compressed, are about 

 an inch and a quarter in diameter, and half an inch in length, 

 and of the form expressed in the sketch, Fig. 3, (where the en- 

 graving has been inadvertently reversed, so that the section of 

 the upper part of Figs. 1. and % here appears on the lower side 

 of the figure). They exhibit the appearance of rings, the cellu- 

 lar bony matter remaining, to mark the peripheral substance of 

 the vertebra, while but indistinct traces of the original central 

 portions can be perceived. The whole substance displayed by 

 the section is a dense clay ironstone, with a few traces of portions 

 of bones. 



It would be presumptuous in me, from such a fragment of 

 an animal as the one now contemplated, and without the aid of 

 figures of better preserved specimens, to pronounce with respect 

 to the genus or even family of fishes to which it ought to be 

 referred. That the original was an inhabitant of fresh-water, 

 is rendered extremely probable, from the character of the stra- 

 tum in which the relic was preserved. It was found in the bed 

 marked No. 59. in the section of the main coal-pit of the county 



