328 



THE CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. 



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southerly dipping beds towards Cape John probably extend under 

 Tatamagouche Bay, and are continuous with the rocks on the south 

 side of Cape Malagash. 



A coal district so singular in its structure, and probably also in the 

 mode of formation of its beds, as that of the Albion Mines, might be 

 anticipated to afford interesting and peculiar fossils. Unfortunately^ 

 however, these beds are not exposed in good natural sections, and the 

 operations of the miner are a very imperfect substitute for these. 

 One bed, however, included in the Albion main coal has afforded 

 some interesting facts. It is a seam of coaly ironstone varying in 

 thickness from four inches to a foot, and in some portions of the mine 

 is extracted with the coal and thrown aside as rubbish, so that large 

 quantities of it can be examined at the surface. It contains abundance 

 of Spirorbis, attached to much-decayed plants. Scales and teeth of 

 large fishes are also found in it, as well as fragments of the bony 

 spines with which they were armed.* Some of the latter are half 

 an inch in diameter. A still more interesting fossil was found by the 

 writer in this bed in 1850. It is the upper part of a skull, seven 

 inches in breadth and five inches in length, and armed with strong 

 conical teeth, somewhat curved, and finely striated longitudinally 

 (Fig. 137). This fossil was sent to London, and examined by Professor 



Fig. 137. — Outline of Skull of Baphctes Planiceps reduced; and Tooth, natural size. 



V^ 



I 



(a) Anterior part of skull, viewed from beneath. 



(b) One of the largest teeth, natural size. 



Owen, by whom it was described and figured in the Proceedings of 

 the Geological Society (1853) under the name of Baphetes Planiceps, 

 alluding to its supposed amphibious habits, and the flatness of its 

 skull. This creature was probably a large frog-like reptile, which 

 preyed on the fishes whose remains are found with it in the " holing 

 stone," as the bed is called by the miners. It will be more fully 

 described in the next chapter. This band, with its peculiar fossils, 

 shows that, at Pictou as at the Joggins, the coal-forming area was 



* See page 210 ante. 



