ANCIENT SALAMANDERS 87 
an important part in primeval times, branching out here and 
there into strange and varied forms, as if they could not help 
themselves. In order to do this we must go a long way back 
into the world’s history ; and even then we shall still be some 
way off the roots of the family tree; or, in other words, we shall 
be in the dark about the first forms of amphibian life which 
appeared on the earth’s surface. 
To find the oldest known amphibian we must go back as far 
as those “dark ages” when a large portion of the surface of what 
is now Europe was overgrown with vast areas of dismal coal- 
forests, something like the mangrove swamps of which we read 
in books of African travel; they must have been dark compared 
to an English meadow on a summer day, and therefore the 
expression “dark ages” is all the more appropriate. Our know- 
ledge of the earliest air-breathing creatures is no doubt small, 
but of late years it has been considerably extended, thanks to the 
labours of several English, American, and Continental workers, 
such as Owen, Huxley, Miall, Seeley, Gaudry, Fritsch, Cope, and 
others, who have all carefully studied and described the fossil 
remains submitted to them, to say nothing of the numerous 
eager collectors who have brought away from the bowels of the 
earth numerous specimens of great value. Their services, 
although of a more humble order, are quite indispensable ; ‘and 
it should be borne in mind that it is in the power of all of us, 
however ignorant we may be of comparative anatomy, and there- 
fore unable to write learned papers for the Geological Society, 
to render valuable service to the cause of Science simply by using 
our eyes and not neglecting opportunities of collecting specimens 
wherever we may go. 
But before proceeding it will be necessary to introduce a new 
name for our old amphibians. It is rather a long one, we 
