68 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



the only members of the finny tribe in which it 

 occurs, are the sturgeons and various kinds of 

 sharks, including of course the dog-fish of our own 

 seas. The fishes of the Permian are chiefly ganoid, 

 and are so called from the character of their scales, 

 which are composed of angular plates of horn or 

 bone thickly enamelled. They consist of various 

 kinds, such as Palseoniscus, Platysomus, Ceratodus 

 and others. 



The Permian formation affords the earliest 

 certain indications of the existence of reptiles on 

 our globe, although it appears that some slight 

 traces of their existence during the Carboniferous 

 era have been discovered. Fossil lizards, turtles 

 and crocodiles belong to this period ; and among 

 the saurians are found the remains of the huge 

 marine lizard called Ichthyosaurus or fish-lizard, 

 the Plesiosaurus, another marine reptile, and the 

 Pterodactyle or winged lizard. 



It will thus be perceived that the various for- 

 mations of the Palaeozoic or most ancient strata, 

 are represented more or less abundantly in various 

 parts of our sea-shores. 



We now turn to the consideration of the 

 SECONDARY EPOCH, the various formations com- 

 posing which are more or less extensively repre- 

 sented in various parts of our sea-shores, as, for 

 instance, in parts of Cheshire, Denbighshire and 

 Devonshire. Observing the order already adopted, 

 we shall first consider the lowest and most ancient 

 of the Secondary formations. 



I. The Triassic Formation. The name triassic is 



