NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PRIMEVAL WORLD. 



observes that their forms would not startle us, notwith- 

 standing their apparent singularity, though they were 

 suddenly restored to take their places among existing 

 fishes. He reminds us that the little armed bull- 

 head of our British shores wears an armour as mar- 

 vellous as, and even more enriched than, that of the 

 Cephalanpis. The Ostracion, or trunk-fish of tlie 

 Indian Ocean, is encased in a bony box as strangely 

 fabricated as that of the Plerichthys or Coccostais. Not 

 less formidable weapons are the spines of the balistes 

 and sea-snipe than the ichthyodorulites of the Dipla- 

 canthus ; and the scales of the bony pike of South 

 America gleam with as bright an enamel, and exhibit 

 as quaint a sculpturing, as those of the Osteolepis or 

 IFolopUjddus of the old red sandstone. 



In the Devonian fauna a very important place was 

 held by the Crustacea, and among the Crustacea by a 

 family named the Eurypteridce, which in some respects 

 resembled our existing king-crabs, as in their carapace 

 and organs of digestion ; in others, our present lobsters, 

 as in their prolonged and segmented bodies. They 

 were furnished with " broad, paddle-like, swimming 

 limbs," and frequently with huge prehensile claws ; 

 measured from three to six feet in length ; and acted as 

 the scavengers of the Devonian coasts. In the same beds 

 with these Crustacea have been discovered an immense 

 number of " dark-coloured patches of spawn-like 

 organisms," which palceontologists are now agreed in 

 regarding as the ova or spawn of the Eiiryptcrus and the 

 Plerygotus, and which bear signal testimony to the 

 ancient abundance and prolificness of crustacean life. 



It is generally admitted that in the Devonian period 

 the order of reptiles first made their appearance, though 

 we have no certain evidence of their existence. Repti- 

 lian foot bones and relics have, indeed, been found in 

 the Elgin sandstones, but some geologists are of opinion 

 that these sandstones do not belong to the Devonian, 

 but to the early Triassio formation. As the question is 

 of a doubtful character, we shall defer to the newer era 

 our consideration of the Telerpeton and the Stcigano- 

 hpis, though these reptiles are usually treated in con- 

 nection with the old red sandstone. 



" Such," we may say in Dr. Page's well-considered 

 words, " is a cursory glance at the life of the Devonian 

 epoch. As yet we know scarcely anything of its 

 terrestrial flora and fauna. We are like voyagers to 

 whom some unknown land looms in the distance through 

 the sea-fogs and grey of the morning. Here and there 

 a few gleams of light fall on hill-sides green with ferns 

 and club-mosses ; and as the mists roll away we catch 

 a passing glimpse of some river-mouth fringed with 

 reeds and rushes. This, however, is all ; the interior is 

 obscured from our vision, and no drift of fruit or forest- 

 growth tells of a higher flora. As we coast along we 

 almost thiuk we catch the reflection of glacier and 

 icebergs, which would indicate in some regions a 

 sterility and dearth of vegetation ; but this may be a 

 delusion, and only the sparkle of the quartzy dills that 

 are broken into fragments by the surf that dashes 

 against them. When we turn to the ocean, the view 

 is somewdiat nearer and clearer. In the warmer seas 

 corals of various forms and beauty are rearing their 

 reefs ; shell-fish of every grade, though not of great 



numerical abundance,* are busy along shore and in mid- 

 water ; fishes of widely different forms swarm in shoals, 

 generically few, but individually most numerous ; while 

 crustaceans of uncouth shape and gigantic growth feed 

 on the tide-borne garbage of the muddy creeks and 

 shallow lagoons. This is all ; and much as has been 

 made of it, all reason forbids us to accept it as more 

 than the merest contribution to the biology of the period." 

 Our investigations into the natural history of the 

 primeval world now bring us to the 



CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD, 



which is generally subdivided into two great sub-periods: 



1. The Carboniferous Limestone. 



2. The Coal Measures. 



To the former the earth owes some of its most im- 

 portant marine deposits ; to the latter those enormous 

 treasures of coal which have been so intimately con- 

 nected with human progress and the development of 

 civilization. 



The limestone deposits which underlie the coal 

 system, and which in many places attain a tliickness of 

 2500 feet, are of marine origin ; have sprung from the 

 death and decay of innumerable myriads of zoophytes, 

 radiata, cephalopods, fishes, and reef-building corals. 

 The seas then teemed with life. AVhole strata are now 

 composed of the calcareous remains of extinct genera, 

 which once trailed along the sands, or clung to the 

 weedy rocks, or crawled along the marshy shore, or 

 floated in the mid-depths of ocean. The Encrinites 

 were then so abundant that entire masses of limestone 

 are composed of their fossil relics, just as islands of 

 coral consist of coral animals. Nor were shell-fish less 

 plentiful. Ortlwceratiles, a yard in length, and Bel- 

 lero2'}hons of extraordinary size, flourished in the warm 

 and genial waters, which also fed and supported legions 

 of star-fishes {Pentrenitcs), sea-urchins {Pahccliini), 

 Serpulce, and Spirorhes. 



Beds of limestone occur in the weald-clay of Sussex, 

 which are wholly made up of the univalve called 

 Paludina. This was a fresh-water snail, which lived 

 in the rivers and lakes of the Carboniferous period. 

 Sometimes the shells are found wholly decomposed, 

 and their casts alone remain, the interstices being filled 

 up with calcareous deposit or indurated marl. In the 

 coarser varieties are cavities left by the decomposition 

 of the shells; in the compact masses the whole has 

 been permeated with a crystalline calcareous infiltration, 

 of various shades of grey, blue, and ochre, interspersed 

 with pure wdiite. But other animal remains enter into 

 their composition, which the naturalist cannot fail to 

 regard with interest. These belong to a fresh-water 

 Crustacea, called Cypiris, which still swarms in our 

 pools and stagnant waters, and resembles a flea covered 

 with an oval shield, except as to the head and feet. 

 It swims by means of numerous cilia, which are fine 

 as pencils of hair. Its shield, shell, or case it sheds 

 annually ; and though its natural size does not exceed 

 that of a pin's head, yet in certain formations huge 

 layers of stone, massive rocks, are composed of the 



* Here we venture to differ from Dr. P.ige. Tlie species or 

 geneva were not numerous, but of tlie abundance of she 1 fiali in 

 certain species we entertain no doubt. 



