TIIIC CARDONIFEROUS. 0< 



lias been collcctctl aiul carefully labelled, in .such a iiianncr as to keep 

 togetlicv tlic parts belonging to each skeleton. 



This tree was about 18 inches in diameter, and in the lower 

 part was partially flattened by lateral pressure, so that its diameter in 

 one direction was only a little over a foot. The material filling the 

 somewhat thick coaly bark may be described as a more or less 

 arenaceous silt or soil, blackened with vegetable matter, and replete 

 with fragments of carbonized bark, mineral charcoal, and fine vegetable 

 debris. There are also numerous leaves of Cordaites, and abundance 

 of tlie fruits which, from their frequent occurrence in such hollow trees, 

 I have elsewhere named Trigonocnrpum ISigillarue. In some places 

 the sediment was finely laminated, the lamina} being often much con- 

 torted. h\ other })laces the earthy matter existed in patches or 

 interrupted layers, nearly free from vegetable matter, and especially 

 abundant toward the sides of the trunk. The cementing substance 

 is in general carbonate of lime, many portions of the mass effervescing 

 freely with an acid, but in some spots there are hard concretions of 

 pyrite. The material has evidently been introduced gradually, in 

 small quantities at a time, and the earthy matter seems to have run 

 down the sides, spreading more or less towards the centre, but in 

 general accumulating around the circumference. The number of 

 skeletons recovered in a more or less complete state was no less than 

 thirteen in all, belonging probably to six species, besides other bones 

 contained in coprolites, and several millipedes, and shells of Pupa 

 Vetusta, the latter almost entirely in the lowest layers. 



The first animal introduced was a specimen of Hijlerpeton Dmc- 

 soni, Owen, whose bones and scutes, after decay of the connecting 

 parts, had slid down the slope of silt from one side toward the centre 

 of the space. Next, after a few inches of filling, came a specimen of 

 Dencherpeton Acadianmn, Owen, whose bones lie along the centre of 

 the layer and nearly in one plane. Above this a large flake of bark 

 had fallen in, forming an imperfect floor over the remains. Then, 

 after an inch or two of carbonaceous matter had been deposited, came 

 a somewhat flat surface, which seems to have remained uncovered for 

 some time, and on this lie the disjecta membra of three skeletons be- 

 longing to Dendrerpeton Acadia?iiii>i, I). Owem\ and a new species of 

 Ili/lerpelon. Above this was a confused mass of considerable thick- 

 ness, in Avhich were found another specimen of the new Ifi/lerpeton, 

 and remains representing a third animal of the same or an allied 

 genus, also four specimens of Ilijlonomus Lyelli^ and portions appa- 

 rently of an immature Dendrerpeton. Still higher in position was a 

 layer witii large portions of the cuticle of a Dendrerpeton, probably 



