1865 LETTER TO SIR CHARLES LYELL 381 



Phonology apart in time. Ever, my dear Sir, very 

 faithfully yours, T. H. HUXLEY. 



During this time he was constantly occupied with 

 paleontological work, as the following letter to Sir 

 C. Lyell indicates 



JERMYN STREET, Nov. 27, 1865. 



MY DEAR SIR CHARLES I returned last night from a 

 hasty journey to Ireland, whither I betook myself on 

 Thursday night, being attracted vulture-wise by the scent 

 of a quantity of carboniferous corpses. The journey was 

 as well worth the trouble as any I ever undertook, seeing 

 that in a morning's work I turned out ten genera of 

 vertebrate animals of which five are certainly new ; and 

 of these four are Labyrinthodonts, amphibia of new 

 types. These four are baptized Ophiderpeton, Lepterpeton, 

 Ichthyerpeton, Keraterpeton. They all have ossified spinal 

 columns and limbs. The special interest attaching to the 

 two first is that they represent a type of Labyrinthodonts 

 hitherto unknown, and corresponding with Siren and 

 Amphiuma among living Amphibia. Ophiderpeton, for 

 example, is like an eel, about three feet long with small 

 fore legs and rudimentary hind ones. 



In the year of grace 1861, there were three genera 

 of European carboniferous Labyrinthodonts known, 

 Archegosaurus, Scleroceplus, Parabatrachus. 



The vertebral column of Archegosaurus was alone 

 known, and it was in a remarkably imperfect state of 

 ossification. Since that date, by a succession of odd 

 chances, seven new genera have come into my hands, and 

 of these six certainly have well-ossified and developed 

 vertebral columns. 



I reckon there are now about thirty genera of 

 Labyrinthodonts known from all parts of the world and 

 all deposits. Of these eleven have been established by 

 myself in the course of the last half-dozen years, upon 



