353 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE CARBONIFEROUS SYiiTE},l—Contmued. 

 LAXD ANIMALS OF THE COAL PERIOD. 



In the Carboniferous period, though h\nd plants abound, air-breathing 

 animals are few, and most of them have only been recently recognised. 

 We know, however, with certainty that the dark and luxuriant forests 

 of the coal period were not destitute of animal life. Reptiles crept 

 under their shade, land snails and millipedes fed on the rank leaves 

 and decaying vegetable matter, and insects flitted through the air of 

 the sunnier spots. G reat interest attaches to these creatures ; perhaps 

 the first-born species in some of their respective types, and certainly 

 belonging to one of the oldest land faunas, and presenting prototypes 

 of future forms equally interesting to the geologist and the zoologist. 

 It has happened to the writer of these pages to have had some share 

 in the discovery of several of these ancient animals. The Coal for- 

 mation of Nova Scotia, so full in its development, so rich in fossil 

 remains, and so well exposed in coast cliffs, has afforded admirable 

 opportunities for such discoveries, which have been so far improved 

 that at least nine out of the not very large number of known Carbon- 

 iferous reptiles, have been obtained from it. I propose in this chapter 

 to give a general account of these interesting creatures, referring the 

 reader for more full details to my special publication on the subject, 

 " The Air-breathers of the Coal Period." * 



Footprints. 



It has often happened to geologists, as to other explorers of ucav 

 regions, that footprints on the sand have guided them to the inhabi- 

 tants of unknown lands. The first trace ever observed of re])tiles in 

 the Carboniferous system, consisted of a series of small but well- 

 marked footprints found by Sir W. E. Logan, in IS-ll, in the Lower 

 (Joal measures of llorton Bluff, in Nova Scotia; and as the authors 

 of all our general works on geology have hitherto, in so fixr as I am 



* Montreal and London, 1863. 



