PAL.EOZOIO AIR-BEEATHING ANIMALS. 87 



of Dendrerpcton, Hyloiiomus and a laud shell in a tree at Coal-Mine Point, down to 1893, 

 such dirfooveries were limited to this one bed, and it was snpposed to he nnique in this 

 respect. I had revisited the Joggins many times in the interval, had extracted al)0ut thirty 

 trees at different times from the bed in question, and had made trials of all the trees exposed 

 in other beds. Yet in 1893 there appeared in the cliff two productive trees in different beds, 

 one of them 203 feet below the original productive bed, the other 414 feet below it ; and 

 thanks to the watchfulness of Mr. V. W. McN'aughton. who had kindly promised to attend 

 to this matter in my behalf they were secured and have proved fruitful of interesting 

 remains, of which in so far as the species are new, preliminary notices are inserted in the 

 foregoing synopsis. 



Erect trees occur in all our coal-tields, and are not infrequent in the roofs of coal-beds 

 from wbiidi they are apt to fall when the supporting coal is removed. All such stumps, and 

 especially their lower parts, should be carefully examined. Were this attended to, I have no 

 doubt that discoveries similar to those made at the South Joggins would result in other 

 coal-fields. 



The next most likely places in which to find land animals are the roof-shales of the 

 coals, especially where these are rich in remains of leaves. Such beds have yielded many 

 fossil insects, and Baphetes planiceps was found in the roof shale of the Pictou main seam. It 

 is to be oliserved that in these beds remains of arachnidans, insects and millipedes are often 

 very f;iint and obscure, and so require careful examination of the surfiices in a good light. 

 It is also to be noted that remains of land animals are apt to occur in special limited localities, 

 where local circumstances have caused them to accumulate ; and where one specimen is found 

 others should be looked for in the same place, and in the continuation of the same surface. 

 Nodules of clay-ironstone, contained in bands of shale or clay, have also proved productive, 

 and should be carefully examined. In many beds the nodules will be found to be barren, but 

 where nodules are found to contain plant remains they will repay search for animal remains 

 as well. 



Beds deposited near the margin of the upland country are also the most promising. In 

 Nova Scotia the older rocks seem to have constituted islands in the waters or swamps of the 

 Carboniferous period, and even of the Erian, and in the vicinity of such old margins of 

 lagoons and swamps, discoveries of land animals may be expected. From this point of view 

 the base of the Cobequid Hills, at Apj)le River and elsewhere on the Cumberland side, and 

 from Advocate Harbour eastward on the south side, have yielded interesting facts in the way 

 of footprints, and may be expected to afford more. So, also, on the south side of ilinas 

 Basin the Lower Carboniferous rocks of Horton Bluff* and Lower Horton deserve careful and 

 repeated search. The thick shale beds over the South Pictou coal seams are also very 

 promising, and tbe roof-shales of Cape Breton have afforded some of our best insects, and 

 only require search to afford many more. It is interesting also to note that the higher 

 fauna of batrachian life has been traced back, though as yet only by footprints, to the basal 

 beds of the Carboniferous. The skeletons of these older creatures are yet a desideratum, 

 and may at any time be found in these Ijeds. 



As to the Erian or Devonian, the shales of the Little River group in Southern New 

 Brunswick, which have afforded so many land invertebrates, are a peculiar and exceptional 

 group of beds, unrivalled as yet in the preservation of the more delicate forms of Devonian 

 vegetation. Similar exceptional spots may exist elsewhere, and the riches of the St. John 



