from the Coal Measures of Nova Scotia. 207 



examination of the locality during the past summer afforded nothing 

 of a similar nature, and there seemed to be no reason for longer 

 delay in announcing so important a discovery. The remains were, 

 accordingly, briefly noticed by the writer in the last number of 

 the American Journal of Science ; and, as they appeared to be 

 generically distinct from any hitherto described, he then proposed 

 for the species the name Eosaurus Acadianus, in allusion to the 

 early appearance on the earth of this higher type of reptilian 

 life* 



The locality which furnished these fossils is at the South Jog- 

 gins Coal formation, in Nova Scotia, on the southern shore of 

 the Chiegnecto channel, a branch of the Bay of Fundy. The 

 Coal-measures at this place, according to Sir W. E. Logan, havef 

 a vertical thickness of 14,570 feet, or nearly three miles; and con- 

 tain seventy-six distinct seams of coal, with erect trees and plants 

 at twenty-two different levels. The strata dip to the south at an 

 angle of about 25° ; and the destructive tides of the bay are con- 

 stantly undermining the high cliffs, and exposing for miles along 

 the coast fresh sections, rich in fossil treasures of vegetable and 

 animal life. 



The present remains were imbedded in a stratum of argillaceous 

 chocolate-colored shale, which forms part of group XXVI. in the 

 elaborate section of the formation made in 1852 by Sir Charles 

 Lyell and Prof. J. W. Dawson. J The position of this group is a 

 little more than 10,000 feet above the lower limits of these Coal- 

 measures, and beneath nearly 5,000 feet of coal strata, containing 

 at least twenty separate veins of coal. It is about 800 feet above 

 the locality which afforded the remains of the Dendrerpeton and 

 Hylonomus. 



This group is sixty-six feet in thickness ; and consists of choco- 

 late and gray shales, containing ironstone nodules, and interstrati- 

 fied with bands of gray sandstone, in which may occasionally be 

 observed ripple marks, and carbonized land plants. Erect Sigil 

 larioe, often of large size, occur at one level, and erect Calamite 

 at another. Prof. Dawson considers these deposits estuary or flu- 

 viatile sediments, covering flats, which were at times dry, or near- 



* From r)ws the dawn, and cravpos, a lizard. The specific appellation 

 is from Acadia, a former name of Nova Scotia. 



t First Report on the Geology of Canada, 1845, 

 X Transactions Geological Society of London, 1853. 



