102 CARBONIFEROUS OF CAPE BRETON—GILPIN. 
ciful resemblance to plants-now growing in the earth. There 
was one tree specially beautiful, its towering stem sometimes 
nearly one hundred feet in height, was fluted like a temple 
column, and crowned by magnificent fern-like fronds, a mysteri- 
ously-developed tree fern. Its roots descending into the marshy 
ground radiated, divided and sub-divided until they could suck 
nourishment rapidly for. the great tree above with its quick 
erowth and frequent branch-making. 
There is also another tree with peculiarities now characteristic 
of the “club mosses,” but its branches were flung wide in the air, 
and it appeared to the casual observer like a mighty pine. 
Yet another curious plant recalls our “mare’s tail,’ but its 
fluted bamboo-like stems were often forty feet high. 
In those pre-historic forests of twenty millions of years ago, 
there was scarce a temptation for the little children to wander 
as Babes in the Woods, for nature, rioting in luxuriant growth, 
did not deign to captivate by the exhibition of the fleeting colors 
and fragrances which poets have sung and nations admired. In 
vain would search have been made for any plant now called 
national: the rose, the thistle, and even the humble emblem of 
our Province, all were wanting, and perchance only tbe mosses 
and fungi relieved the sombre colors of that “ Dismal Swamp.” 
In vain would the hunter, so far as the records of the rocks 
inform us, have searched for his prey, in the air, or by land, or 
by sea. Locusts, beetles, scorpions, nondescript frogs or newts, 
all labored in their task of subduing, consuming and consolidat- 
ing the great masses of vegetation. However, it must be said 
that these remarks are based on negative evidence only, the 
plants and insects from which our imagination has reconstructed 
so curious a page in the history of mother earth, are few in 
number, and owe their preservation as fossils to peculiar cireum- 
stances. There may have been many other organized helpers in 
the great scheme on the hills and highlands surrounding the 
marshes, and imagination may depicture the graces and beauties 
and the melodious sounds of an untrodden land. 
Such were some of the curious forms that were crowded in the 
battle of life which left victors and vanquished preserved for our 
