LAND ANIMALS OF THE COAL PEKIOD. 3G1 



strong maxillary bones show that It must have devoured animals of 

 considerable size, probably the fishes whose remains are found with 

 it, or the smaller reptiles of the coal. It must, in short, have been 

 crocodilian, rather than frog-like, in its mode of life ; but whether, 

 like the labyrinthodonts, it had strong liinbs and a short body, or like 

 the crocodiles, an elongated form and a powerful natatory tail, the 

 remains do not decide. One of the limbs, or a vertebra of the tail, 

 would settle this question, but neither has as yet been found. That 

 there were large animals of the labyrinthodontal fonn in the Coal 

 period, is proved by the footprints of Sauropus, already noticed, which 

 may have been produced by an animal of the type of Baphetes. On 

 the other hand, that there were large swimming reptiles seems estab- 

 lished by the recent discovery of the vertebrie of Eosaurus Acadlanus, 

 at the Joggins, by Mr 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. 



With the nature of its habitat we are better acquainted. The area 

 of the Albion Mines Coal-field was somewhat exceptional in its char- 

 acter. It seems to have been a bay or indentation in the Silurian 

 land, sepai'ated 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 vegetable 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 incur- 

 sions, it must have been often submerged, and probably had connexion 

 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, occurring in the main scam, about five feet 

 below its roof, and varying In thickness from two inches to nearly 

 two feet. It was from this band that the rubblsh-hcap In which I 

 found the skull of Baphetes planiceps was derived. It is a laminated 

 bed, sometimes hard and containing much Ironstone, in other places 

 soft and shaly ; but always black and carbonaceous, and often with 

 layers of coarse coal, though with few fossil plants retaining their 

 forms. It contains large round flat scales and flattened curved teeth, 



* Silliman's Joui'nal, 1859. 



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