20 



BRITISH FOSSILS. 



Cheadle, North StaiFordshire, shows that the parieto-occipital re- 

 gion of the head was at least 1 '5 in. long, and that the length of the 

 whole head could not have been less than 3:^ inches. The entire 

 fish, therefore, was probably not less than 12 to 14 inches in 

 length. 



In this large specimen the surface of the parieto-occipital region, 

 and of so much of the frontal region of the skull as is preserved, 

 as well as that of the opercula, are covered with oval tubercles 

 of enamel, set so closely as to leave no interspace. On the parieto 

 occipital shield these tubercles are about of an inch long, but 

 on the opercula and the fragments of the external facial bones 

 they become both actually and proportionally longer. The left 

 pectoral fin is about an inch and a half long, and has a distinct, 

 though small, scaly lobe. The ornamentation of the scales is 

 quite as in the smaller specimens, but the scales are fully 0'3 in, in 

 diameter. 



//. Ccelacanthus elegans, Newberry. 



I am indebted to Sir Philip Egerton, Bart, for the opportunity 

 of studying several specimens of the Ccelacanthus elegans of 

 Dr. Newberry, from Listen, Ohio, and I figure three of them for 

 comparison with Codacantlius lepturus. 



No 1. The specimen represented in PI. V.,Jig. 1. 



The caudal extremity of this specimen is broken ofi\, but its 

 extreme length, when entire, could hardly have exceeded 5'75 in. 

 The length of the head is 1*3 in., so that the whole body was be- 

 tween four and five times as long as the head. 



The fish is crushed in such a manner as^ to have its depth un- 

 naturally increased, and the right ventral fin is seen to be de- 

 tached, and lies below the left. From the line of the back at the 

 front boundary of the first dorsal fin, to the opposite point of the 

 belly is 1*4 in. 



The scales, in a tolerably good state of preservation, are about 

 0-15 in. in diameter, thin and flat, and would be circular were not 

 their posterior margins produced into an obtuse point (Plate V., 

 fig. 3). 



Each scale is ornamented with narrow, wavy, nearly parallel 

 ridges, which converge towards and meet along, a line drawn 

 through the centre and the point of the scale. I observe no 

 marked differences among the scales of different parts of the body, 

 nor any trace of a lateral line. 



The neural arches have the ordinary form, and are close set. 

 A series of subvertebral arches correspond with them in the caudal 

 region, but there is no more trace of ribs in this species than in C. 

 lepturus. 



Fourteen or fifteen fin rays, jointed in their distal portions, are 

 discernible in the anterior dorsal fin (Z)), and seven or eight in the 

 posterior (J^), the anterior edge of which is opposite the most 



