Section IV, 1891. [ 127 ] Trans. Koy. Soc. Canada. 



Abstract. 



Oji the Mode of Occurrence of Reinahis of Land Animals in Erect Trees at the South 



Joff(jins, Nova Scotia. 



* 



By Sir J. William Dawson, LL.D., F.E.S., etc. 



(ReadMay 29, 1891.) 



The remarkable section of coal-formation rocks at the South Joggins, in Cumberland 

 County, has long been known as one of the most instructive in the world ; exhibitiug as 

 it does a thickness of 5,000 feet of strata of the coal-formation in a cliff of considerable 

 height, kept clean by the tides and waves, and in the reefs extending from this to the shore, 

 which at low tide expose the beds very perfectly. It was first described in detail by the 

 late Sir. "W". E. Logan,' and afterwards the middle portion of it was still more detailed by 

 the author, more especially in connection with the fossil remains characteristic of the 

 several beds and the A^egetable constituents and accompaniments of the numerous seams 

 of coal." It was on occasion of a visit of the author in company with Sir Charles Lyell, 

 and in the iiursuit of these investigations, that one of the most remarkable features of the 

 section was disclosed in 1851. This is the occurrence, in the trunks of certain trees imbedded 

 in an erect i^osition in the sandstones of Coal-mine Point, of remains of small reptiles, 

 which, with one exception, a specimen from the Pictou coal-field, were the first ever dis- 

 covered in the carboniferous rocks of the American continent, and are still the most perfect 

 examples known of a most interesting family of coal-formation animals, intermediate in 

 some respects between reptiles proper and batrachians, and known as Microsauria. With 

 these were found the first known carboniferous land snails and millipedes. Very com- 

 plete collections of these remains have been placed by the author with his other speci- 

 mens in the Peter Redpath Museum, and the object of the present paper was to take 

 advantage of the meeting of the Royal Society in Montreal, in order to exhibit these 

 specimens and to illustrate the precise mode of their occurrence and entombment. 



A forest or grove of the large ribbed trees known as Sigillarice, was either sub- 

 merged by subsidence, or, growing on low ground, was invaded with the muddy waters 

 of an inundation, or successive inundations, so that the trunks were buried to the depth 

 of several feet. The projecting tops having been removed by svibaerial decay, the buried 

 stumiîs became hollow, while their hard outer bark remained intact. They thus became 

 hollow cylinders in a vertical position and open at top. The surface having then become 

 dry land, covered with vegetation, was haunted by small quadrupeds and other land 

 animals, which from time to time fell into the open holes, in some cases nine feet deep, 



' ' Report Geol. Survey of Canada,' 1844. 



- 'Journal London Geological Society,' vol. X, pp. 1, et seq., 1S53, "Acadian Geology," pp. 156, et seq. 



