Bibliographical Notice. 477 



racter which is exceptional in liasso-jurassic Kept ilia ; and that ex- 

 ception, exemplified in Ichthyosaurus^ is adaptive, as in fishes, in 

 relation to an aquatic medium of life and locomotion. In those 

 South- African Reptilia which, from their jaws and dentition, were 

 herbivorous, and, from what is known of their limbs, more terres- 

 trial than aquatic, the proportion of the primitive notochord retained 

 in their vertebral column, indicated bj' the term Tretospondylia 

 (Nos. S. A. 1-31), offers a closer analog}- to the condition of that 

 column in the early air-breathing Vertebrates of the Carboniferous 

 series than to any Dinosaur of the Mesozoic formations. 



"A specimen of fossO fish (Hi/pferus Bainii, Ow.), transmitted 

 with reptilian remains from the Beaufort beds at 'Alice,' near Fort 

 Beaufort, belongs to a heterocercal genus near akin to Amhlypterus, 

 with close relations to other Ganoids of the Carboniferous formations. 



" The answer, then, to the question of the geologist as to the 

 age of the South- African Reptilia, at the present phase of evidence, 

 ia, that they are not later in time than the Trias, and probably lived 

 in the Palaeozoic period. 



" Those, however, to whom such reply is in any degree intelligible 

 form but a small proportion of the numbers visiting the British 

 Museum who may give an intelligent glance at these singular fossils, 

 and more or less comprehend the . facts and deductions by which 

 creatures so long exrinct have been restored, so far, at least, as to 

 enable the naturalist to assign to them their place and affinities in 

 the zoological system. By such visitors the question naturally asked 

 is, ' When did these dragons live ? and how long ago is it since they 

 died out ? ' 



" To assist the comprehension of the grounds of a reply a 

 ' Tabular View of the Fossiliferous Strata,' in the order of super- 

 position, is subjoined (see opposite). 



"Among the most recent of these strata (viz. the turbary deposits, 

 or accumulations of peat, still in course of formation) there are 

 found evidences of Man, with remains of red-deer, roebuck, wild 

 boar, the small indigenous ox (Bos lotigifrons), &c. ; but the condi- 

 tions under which the great vertical extent of these deposits have 

 been accumulated in certain localities yield ground for an estimate 

 of a considerable lapse of historical time. 



"WTien such beds of peat have been dug out, they are seen, in 

 many localities, e. y. in Ireland, the Isle of Man, and adjacent coast 

 of England, to have rested on a deposit of white marl, of a fine 

 tenacious consistency, and forming a good maniire for oat- and 

 potato-crops, due, in part, to remains of successive generations of 

 freshwater mollusks which flourished in the ancient lakes of which 

 the marl formed the bed. In this marl are found remains of the 

 reindeer, the Mcyctceros, the hairy northern elephant (E. primiyenius), 

 and of other large extinct beasts, which roamed from Northern 

 Europe over a land extending into the Atlantic, parts of which 

 continent now remain in an insulated state, as ' Great Britain, 

 ' Ireland,' the ' Isle of Man.' 



" Since the depo.sits of ' shell-marl,' and of the corresponding 



