Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-15
FINDING FOSSIL FISH.
They Date Back Four Million Years
New Jersey Was Then Submerged.

From the New York Tribune.
The scientific world has been greatly in
terested of late in the geological discoveries
made by Prof. John Hays Smith. teacher
of geology and chemistry in the MOntclair
IN. j. High School.
In the blue shales OF valley a few miles
from MontcIair were found fossil fish of a
kind which Is almost extinct, only three
specimens now surviving. They belong to
the order Of ganoiis. which possessed no
interior hony skeleton. but only an outside
covering of bony Or cartilaginous plates.
They we're the earliest known veterbrates.
\ number of excellent specimens in the
possession of Prof Smith show distinctly
the shining, bOny scales of this peculiar
species OF fish which, according to geolo-
gists. must have existed ages ago. The
term gaHoid was applied because of the
form Of the scales. which in most species
are angular. square or rhomboidal. as seen
in the common garpikes. In prehistoric
times gano!ds were numerous In species,
genera and families. and they, with sharks.
were rulers Of the sea. To visitor last
week Prof Smith said:
The Jersey City Water Supply Company
while eXcavating for their cOfferdam in
ROckdway valley opened up bees of red
and blue shales. Beneath these shales iies
a bed Of volcanic congiOmerate and be
IedtA ttlS stratum are more ShdleS. In a
thin layer of blue shales. averaging about
three feet In thickness are found most re-
mdrkabIe specimens of ganoids and al
though the opening is not larger than 20
by lOp feet, thousands of them are being
taken out Although fragments of ganoids
OF greater size have been found these re-
Gently discovered are comparatively small
none being larger than fourteen incnes in
length There has also been found another
species. which looks like the modern sword
fish
Were they like modern fish," the visitor
asked Prof Smith smiled, and replied:
Unlike modern fish. they possessed no
interior yertebral skeleton: in other words
they had no bones. They were. however
incased in an armor of bony plates SYM
me-rically arranged like fish scales, but
Were unlike them, as the pieces of plate
lhterlocked In one another. and yet permit
ted great ffexibility of the body. The
ganoids developed from an unvertebrated
species, allied to the modern crab and lob
ster. They possessed both lungs and gills
Dissimilar to modern fish. the tail was un-
symmetrical. one-half being much larger
than the other half. the body extending into
the larger portion of the caudal fin
They lived during the latter part of the
Jura-Thias period. which IS placed at $780,
80 years ago At that time the entire
state Of New Jersey. except a strip of high
lands in the northern part. was submerged
under the Atlantic. and the southern At
lantic states were all under water.
THE scales of the ganoids were bright
and shining. but there is no evidence of
their original color. few imperfect speci-
mems have been found in Durham Conn,
and In South Carolina. places which Dor
dered on the sea in those times At that
time this region was a place of great vol
canic activity Great quantities of black
lava flowed forth from the earth and rolled
down into the sea- forming the Palisades
0f New Jersey and the Orange mountains
hen stream of molten lava poured down
on an ocean beach it gathered up the peb-
bles and formed what Is known as pun
dingstone. or conglomerate rock A LAYER
OF this congiomerate Is found in the snales
which contain the fish. thus proving that
this particular region was then in a state
OF volcanic activity. 1t Is highly probable
that this was time of mighty earth
quakes. and huge. high-rolling sea waves
accompanied these earthquakes. Almost