On the Age of the Sandstones of the Newark Group. 359 



inferences with which Mr. E.'s paper in the Annals is concluded : 

 viz. 



"It has of late years been generally admitted that the sand- 

 stone from which these fishes are derived is of much later date 

 than the old red sandstone, to which it was once referred, and 

 these remains confirm this belief. The PalcBonisci, of Europe 

 [true heterocerques] have never been found below the coal mea- 

 sures, while they extend upward to the copper slate of the zech- 

 stein, or magnesian limestone. In the case before us, we find a 

 species of Paloeoniscus accompanied by a fish, the structure of 

 whose tail approaches that of the Pholidophorus, and of other 

 fishes never found below the lias. This fact would seem to im- 

 ply for this formation, even a higher situation in the series than 

 that which is now assigned it by geologists." — Annals, &c, p. 40. 



The American Association of Geologists and Naturalists at 

 the meeting held in Albany in April, 1843, requested Mr. John 

 H. Kedfield to prepare a report on the fossil fishes of the United 

 States. His report was presented to the Association, at New 

 Haven, in May, 1845. It was withheld from publication by its 

 author, on account of the expected visit of Prof. Agassiz to this 

 country, and with a view of commending the whole subject to 

 his examination. — In the review of the fishes of our new red 

 sandstone, so called, the report stated as follows : 



"New Red Sandstone.' — Under this term I include the ex- 

 tensive sandstone formation of the Connecticut river valley ; the 

 small and isolated basin on the Pomperaug river near Southbury, 

 Ct. ; the New Jersey Sandstone, extending from the border of 

 the Hudson river, southwesterly, to the interior of Virginia ; 

 and, also, the formation known as the coal rocks of Eastern Vir- 

 ginia. — (Report, p. 4.) 



"All of the fishes hitherto found in these rocks belong to the 

 order Ganoid m, and to the family Lepidoid^e." — Report, p. 5. 



"Prof. Agassiz has made two subdivisions in this, as in other 

 families of the order Ganoidse, founded on differences in the 

 structure of the tail. In the first of these, (Heterocerci) the upper 

 lobe of the tail, is vertebrated and is usually longer than the 

 lower, and the scales of the body extend upon the upper lobe 

 nearly or quite to its extremity. The other division, the homo- 

 cerci, have the tail regular, either forked or rounded, and the 

 scales do not extend upon the upper lobe, though in some genera 

 they are slightly prolonged in that direction. The fishes of our 

 sandstone formation above mentioned, would seem to belong to 

 the first of these divisions, or those with heterocercal tails. They 

 do not, however, exhibit this structure in the same degree which 

 obtains in the fishes of the older European rocks, or even in 

 those of the new red sandstone or magnesian limestone of Eng- 

 land and Germany. The only two genera which have yet been 



