LAND ANIMALS OF THE COAL PERIOD. 389 



six inches apart. Their direction curves abruptly, and they sometimes 

 cross each other. From their position they were probably produced 

 by a land or fresh-water animal — possibly a large Crustacean or 

 or gigantic Annelidc or Myriapod. In size and general appearance 

 they slightly resemble the curious Climactichnites of Sir W. E. Logan, 

 from the Potsdam sandstone of Canada." To this I may add that 

 the space between the rows of marks is slightly depressed and 

 smoothed, as if with a heavy body like that of a serpent trailed 

 along. The recent remarkable discovery in the Coal-field of Kil- 

 kenny, Ireland, of the large serpentiform Batrachian, described by 

 Huxley under the name Ophiderpcton, leads to the supposition that 

 these trails may indicate the existence of a similar creature in Nova 

 Scotia. 



The contents of this chapter may be summed up in the statement, 

 that the Coal formation of Nova Scotia has afforded of terrestrial 

 Vertebrates no less than eight species of reptiles, some of them 

 probably of higher type than the Batrachians ; of land Mollusks the 

 only two species known in the Palaeozoic rocks ; of land Articulates 

 one millipede and two insects. While the reptiles differ much 

 from existing types, and belong to families which have long ago 

 passed away, the mollusks and articulates are remarkably like 

 the creatures of their rank found in similar places at the present 

 time, belonging in two instances even to the same generic groups. 



Note. — "While this chapter is passing through the press, I am 

 informed by Mr Scudder, to whom I have submitted the numerous 

 fragments of Myriapods in my collection from the Joggins, that he 

 thinks he can recognise three additional species of Xylobius and a new 

 generic form (Archiulus). I hope to give descriptions of these in 

 the Appendix. 



