from the Coal Measures of Nova Scotia. 213 



flattened form of the vertebrae ; the great depth of their ter- 

 minal concavities; the separate condition of the neural arch ; and 

 its short longitudinal extent at the base, — all are consistent with 

 the conclusion that the Uosaurus was capable of rapid progress 

 through the water in pursuit of its prey, which was probably fishes ; 

 and since it had then, according to our present knowledge, no su- 

 perior in point of size, it must have reigned supreme in the waters 

 of the Carboniferous era. 



As the vertebrae which have been described in this paper were 

 discovered in 1855, they are, consequently, so far as the writer is 

 aware, the first osseous remains of a true air-breathing Saurian 

 from the Coal formation; and the only Enaliosaurian remains 

 yet obtained from below the Upper Triassic. Occurring as they 

 they do in Palaeozoic strata, they add another to the arguments 

 that have been brought against the so-called "Development 

 Theory ;" and they show with how great caution we should re- 

 ceive the assertions, so frequently and confidently made on nega- 

 tive evidence alone, of the exact date of the creation or destruction 

 of any form of animal or vegetable life. They prove, moreover, 

 that during the deposition of the Coal-measures the atmosphere 

 was suflBcientJy free from the destructive gases, which, many 

 suppose were contained in it, to permit the existence of a high 

 type of air-breathing reptiles. This period was, in fact, the fore- 

 shadowing of an age, then far in the future, when reptilian life 

 should hold undisputed sway upon the earth, until in turn supplanted 

 by a higher and a nobler form of existence. 



KEVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Fourth Report of the Geology of Kentucky^ by Owen mid others. 

 Report of the Geological Survey of Wisconsin^ by Hall and Wliit- 



ney. 

 Report on the Colorado River of the West, by Ives, Newberry ^ and 



others. 

 Report of the Geological Survey of Maine, by Hitchcock. 



It is not a little creditable to the people of the United States, 

 that while engaged in the costly and bloody strife for their national 

 existence, they do not wholly intermit their public exertions 

 on behalf of natural science. Each of the above mentioned works 



