IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) ^^ f^i « r/, 1.0 I.I 1.25 ■- ISii 11 2.2 t »S 1120 1.8 U 111.6 Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 (716) 872- (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames a& required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: 1 2 3 L'exemplaire film^ fut reproduit grdce d la g6n6rosit6 de: Library of Congress Photoduplication Service Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettetd de l'exemplaire filmd, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. 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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 «. 4i«iiiM^eKi«iMM<«<«»>» ^^ w *^ ^ '^t^"^' ^ i ^ %^ "■'->>) ^h^-t^f^'^m^ii^^-^^^-^ "-'-" V ■wmm om the Canadian Naturalist, Vol. VIII. No, (5.) LOWER CARBONIFEROUS PISHES OF NEW BRimSWtCK. By Pri.vcipm- Dawson. LL.D., F.R.S. The recent sinking of a shaft on the property of the Beliveau Albertite and Oil Company on the Petitcodiac River, has exposed a new and interesting deposit of fossil fishes in the rich bitumi- nous shales of that district, which contain the remarkable deposits of Albertite, described in my Acadian Geology, second edition, p. 231 et seq. The bed affording these fossils is a dark brown bituminous shale ; and I am informed by Mr. E. B. Chandler, to whom I am indebted for an interesting collection of the fish remains, was from four to five feet thick. The specimens thus presented, with those previously in my collection, and one kindly given to me by Mr. F. Adams, of this University, and the valu- able memoirs recently published by Dr. Newberry in the Ohio Reports, and by Dr. Traquair in the Journal of the Geological Society, enable me now to give a revision of the fishes of this locality, as described by Dr. Jackson in his Report of 1851 on the Albert mine, which I was unable to do in the second edition of Acadian Geology, owing to the .small number of specimens to which at that time I had access. In the collections in my possession, I recognize, in all, five species, three of them very small, and two of larger size. Of these, one, which is unusually well preserved and is the smallest of the whole, appears to be new, and I shall begin by describing it. PalaoniHcus (^Rhadinichthyi) Modulus, N. 8. — Length, five to six centimetres ; greatest breadth, 15 to 17 millimetres — the proportion of length to breadth being about five to one and a half. Head, oval and obtuse ; details not preserved, except that the bones are sculptured with fine waving lines. Body gracefully curved, and upper lobe of tail long and slender. Pectoral fins small, with stout, unjointed rays. Ventral not distincly preserved, but apparently small and nearer to pectorals than to anal. Dorsal and anal of moderate size and opposite each other. Caudal very heterooeroal, with the lower lobe sharply pointed. Pins with well developed fuloral spines, especially large at the base of the caudal. Scales of the sides rhombic, coarsely toothed on the posterior edges and elaborately sculptured with flat, scaly ridges, ■■*• •... ■\ »'5»« 4 3 teriorly. The posterior edge of the anul fin ;ippro:iohos nearly to the oaudiil, and extends considerably behind the posterior edge of the dorsal. P. Ualmsil., Jiiekson. — About the same size with the hist, but more slender, and the head less obtuse in front. Scales think and with few striae, and less numerous serrations. Dorsal scales pointed posteriorly. Aual fin somewhat remote from caudal and opposite dorsal. A specimen collected by Mr. Ells, of the Geoloj^ieal Survey, indicates a fish of the .same general form with P. Albcrti, but about six inches long. The outline of this fish is well seen, but the details arc not sufl&ciently clear to show if it differs in these from the smaller species. The next species and perhaps the following one, belong to the genus Elonichthys of Giebel. They are much larger than the preceding. P. Broionii, Jackson, is deep in form, with large dorsal and anal, the latter reaching almost to base of caudal. Scales of body broad and with numerous fine horizontal striato-punctate fur- rows, which turn abruptly upward at the anterior side of each scale. A nearly perfect specimen, collected by Mr. Ells, shows that the head was of moderate size, and the body about ten inches long and three and a quarter inches wide, the breadth at the dorsal fin being as great as at the shoulders, giving a sort of rectangular form to the fish, whose breadth suddenly diminishes toward the tail. The crystalline lens of the eye of Mr. Ells's specimen is pre- served in calcite. Tinder the microscope it shows concentric laminae and coarse bands or rods with indistinct denticulations ; the structure being similar to that in the crystalline lens of the modern ganoid Amin oceUicnuda. This is the first instance known to me of the preservation of the structure of the crystal- line lens in a palaeozoic fish. P. Jacksoni, N. .s. — A species figured, but not jdescribed, by Jackson, is represented by many fragments in my collection. It is the largest of these fishes, reaching a length of 15 inches. It may be distinguished from the last by its more slender form, its small anal fin, more remote from the caudal, and by the char- acter of the scales, which have many horizontal striae, and have in the broader ones a few deep and strong serrations posteriorly. BiSlAliHMiiiaWWBU d -^-^•'''^^^"^^'^"-- MiMi^fli .V;i> -/^^^f • Tlie wlioli' of these fishes liavc been preserved entire, the body beinir jiurfectly fl:ittened and thrown into attitudes which imply that they wore imbedded when living or immediately after death. The material in whicli they are contained is shown, by its mi- croscopical and chemical characters, to have been a vegetable n)uok or mud, and the fish were either overwhelmed by it in the manner of a bursting bog, or were stifled by the non oxygenated water mixed with this mud, and suddenly killed i.nd imbedded in the accumulating sediment. That they occur in this perfect state and in a limited thickness of the deposit, may imply that at certain times they were overwhelmed by the irruption of this fetid organic mud into tlie water in which they lived. The bud is low down in the Lower Carboniferous series, being the equivalent of the Horton series of Nova Scotia ; so that these fi.'shes are among the oldest that we know in the Carboniferous period ; but we know, from the Horton beds, that many far larger and pre- daceous ganoids were their contemporaries. No remains of these have however as yet been found in the Albert or Beliveau beds, which were probably depoi-ited in limited fresh-water basins, per- haps not ordinarily :icce.ssible to the larger fishes. Sir Philip Egertou* and Dr. Traquairf have both remarked on the similarity of the.se fishes to those found in the Lower Carboniferous of Scotland, and Dr. Newberry has described very similar species from the Carboniferous of Illinois and Ohio.| I I * Journal of Geological Society, 1853, t H: 1877. t Kt'porton lilinoiN, Vol. II ; Falwontology of Ohio, Vol. 1. ^ ^/9^f^ ire, the body which imply )r after death, n, by its mi- a vegetable by it in the 1 oxygenated id imbedded this perfect y imply that ption of thi.s 1. The bed le equivalent ie fishes are period ; but Ljer and pre- lins of these liveau beds, basins, per- ;h remarked the Lower s described and Ohio.J .1. I. •>ia,Uiff» iwii"«ifcMi-»iX»a><