268 THE OLDEST AIR-BREATHERS 



by the discovery of the vertebrae of Eosaiirus Acadianus^ at 

 the Joggins, by Marsh.^ The locomotion of Baphetes must 

 have been vigorous and rapid, but it may have been effected 

 both on land and in water, and either by feet or tail, or both. 

 A jawbone found at the Joggins in Nova Scotia, and to, 

 which I have attached the name Baphetes minor ^ may have 

 belonged to a second species. Great Batrachians allied to 

 Baphetes, but different specifically or generically, have since 

 been found in the coal formations of Great Britain, the conti- 

 nent of Europe and the United States. 



With the nature of the habitat of this formidable creature 

 we are better acquainted. The area of the Albion Mines coal 

 field was somewhat exceptional in its character. It seems to 

 have been a bay or indentation in the Silurian land, separated 

 from the remainder of the coal field by a high shingle beach, 

 now a bed of conglomerate. Owing to this circumstance, 

 while in the other portions of the Nova Scotia coal field the 

 beds of coal are thin, and alternate with sandstones and shales, 

 at the Albion Mines a vast thickness of almost unmixed vege- 

 table matter has been deposited, constituting the " main seam ' 

 of thirty-eight feet thick, and the " deep seam," twenty-four feet 

 thick, as well as still thicker beds of highly carbonaceous 

 shale. But, though the area of the Albion coal measures was 

 thus separated, and preserved from marine incursions, it must 

 have been often submerged, and probably had connection 

 with the sea, through rivers or channels cutting the enclosing 

 beach. Hence beds of earthy matter occur in it, containing 

 remains of large fishes. One of the most important of these 

 is that known as the "Holing stone," a band of black highly 

 carbonaceous shale, coaly matter, and clay ironstone, occur- 

 ring in the main seam, about five feet below its roof, and vary- 

 ing in thickness from two inches to nearly two feet. It was 

 from this band that the rubbish heap in which I found the 

 ^ Silliman! s Journal, 1 859. 



