94 



THE FAR PAST. 



sion. Gigantic annelids,* large as a man's arm, throng the 

 sandy shore, leaving, like the lobworm, their frequent casts 



1, Suingocephalus ; 2, Spirifera : 3, Calceola: 4, IvTegalcdon; 5, Hurchisouia ; 

 6, Pleurotomaria ; 7, Clymenia. 



and burrows, while smaller species and wandering Crustacea 

 thickly track the rippled, and rain-pitted, and sun-cracked 

 surface with their devious courses. Reptiles also, for the 

 first time, come into notice there being no great order in 

 existing nature unrepresented, save insects, birds, and 

 mammals. 



The most noticeable feature in the fauna is, perhaps, 

 the large Crustacea, the curiously encased fishes, and the 



* These so-called annelid burrows, which occur alike in the lowest 

 Old Red of Forfar, and in the upper beds of Roxburgh, are deserving of 

 a closer examination than they have yet i-eceived from the paleontolo- 

 gist. Some of them are so large and of such curious internal configur- 

 ation, that one is tempted to inquire whether pterygotus and his allies 

 did not occasionally burrow their abdominal segments in the sandy 

 mud, and there, pincers at rest, watch for their passing prey. 



