134 THE OLD RED SANDSTONE. 



may, its usual sandstones, flagstones, slaty shales, clayej 

 marls, and concretionary limestones are true water- formec 

 strata, and we perceive in their numerous alternations anc 

 varying compositions the recurrent sediments of open anc 

 free-flowing seas. 



But if the mere lithological composition of its rocks car 

 thus throw light on the geographigal conditions of the Olc 

 Red Sandstone period, much more are we aided by a con 

 sideration of its fossils the plant-life and animal-life thai 

 peopled the lands and waters. Wherever it has been exam 

 ined, the flora appears to be of a lowly character sea-weeds 

 marsh or rush-like plants, clubmoss-like twigs, fronds o: 

 ferns, and less evidently, perhaps, drifted fragments o: 

 coniferous trees. We thus get a glimpse, as it were, o: 

 rocky weed-covered beaches, low marshy river -banks, o: 

 shady nooks and corners where fern and clubmoss luxuriate 

 and of higher uplands fitted for the growth of coniferse o: 

 pine-like trees. So far as known in Europe, the plants o 

 the Old Red generally appear in detached and drifted frag 

 ments, and rarely in such abundance as to form a bitumi 

 nous or coaly shale ; but in Canada the thin seams of coa 

 discovered by Dr Dawson would indicate not only a greatei 

 luxuriance, but even land areas on which they grew anc 

 died till the accumulated masses were sufficient to form sue 

 cessive layers of pure and crystalline coal. This is all tha 

 we learn of the dry land of the period from the vegetatioi 

 that clothed it. We know nothing of its extent or configu 

 ration, nothing of its hills or valleys, of its lakes or rivers 

 and are only left to infer from the nature and amount of th< 

 stratified sediments that the latter must have been botl 

 large and powerful. No true terrestrial creature insect 



probable, though requiring for its final demonstration a much more pro 

 tracted and careful examination than the several phenomena have yel 

 received from geologists. 



