62 KE PORT— 1875. 



types of the class to which they belong. This is well illustrated ia the Corals, 

 Crinoids, Asteriadfe, Mollusca, and Crustacea of the Silurian age, and which make 

 up the beginnings of life in the Palreozoic period. The fishes of the Old Red Sand- 

 stone we have already seen occupy a respectable position among the Pisces ; and the 

 Ileptiles of the Trias are not the lowest forms of their class, but highly organized 

 Dinosauria. Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Fterodncfi/Ius, Teleosaurus, and Mcgalo- 

 saurus stand out in bold relief from the Mesozoic strata as remarkable types of animal 

 life that were specially organized and marvellously adapted to fulfil important con- 

 ditions of existence in the Reptilian age ; they afford, I submit, conclusive evidence 

 of special work of the Great Designing Mind which pervades all creation, organic and 

 inorganic. In a word, Palaeontology brings us face to face with the Creator, and 

 shows us pLiinly how in all that marvellous past there always has existed the most 

 complete and perfect relation between external nature and tlie structure and dura- 

 tion of the organic forms which gave life and activity to each succeeding age. 



Palreontology likewise discloses to our feeble understanding some of those methods 

 by which the Infinite works through natm'al forces to accomplish and maintain His 

 Creative design, and thereby teaches us that there has been a glorious scheme and 

 a gradual accomplishment of purpose through unmeasured periods of time ; but 

 Palffioutology affords no solution of the problem of creation, 'whetlier of kinds, of 

 matter, or of species of life, beyond this, that although countless ages have rolled 

 away since the denizens of the Silui-ian beach lived and moved and had their being, 

 the same Biological laws that governed their life, assigned them their position in 

 the world's story, and limited their duration in time and space, are identical with 

 those which are expressed in the morphology and distribution of the countless 

 organisms which live on the earth's surface at the present time ; and this fact realizes 

 in a material form the truth and force of those assuring words, that the Great Author 

 of all things, in these His works, is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. 



Description of a new Species of Lahyrinthodont Amphibia from the Coal at 

 Jarrow Colliery, near Castlecomer, co. Kilkenny. By William Hellier 

 Bailt, F.L.S., F.G.S., M.RJ.A., Aetiny Palceontoloyist to H.M. Geolo- 

 ■ gical Survey of Ireland. 



The discovery of the remains of as many as seven genera of vertebrate animals 

 of the Labyi-inthodont type, associated with large Ganoid fish (Hhizodus, Gyracmi- 

 fhus, &c.) and plant-remams {Lepidodeiidnm and Siyilluria, with a few ferns, Ak- 

 thopteris lonchitica, Sphenopteris lutifolia, &c.), ten years ago in the coal of Jarrow 

 Colliery, co. Kilkenny, by Mr. W. B. Brownrigg, and their description by Prof. 

 Huxley (see a joint memoir by that gentleman and Prof E. Perceval W' right. 

 Trans. Royal Irish Acad. vol. xxiv. 1867, pp. 351 &c.) was alluded to by the 

 author. 



Since then a much larger example than any of those previously described had 

 been obtained from the same colliery by the Geological Survey of Ireland, and 

 was the subject of the present communication. The occurrence of the genus 

 Anthracosaiinis amongst the fossils formerly obtained from this colliery had already 

 been indicated by Prof Huxley ; that specimen, however, only consisted of a group 

 of vertebrae and ribs, now in the British Museum collection. This the author had 

 examined, and believed it to be identical with corresponding parts in the fossil now 

 brought before the notice of the Association, and which he had named Anthraco- 

 satinis Edyei, considering it to be allied to, but not identical with, A. liusseili, 

 Huxley, a species from the Lanarkshire coal-field, of which the palatine or under 

 portion of the head, with the teeth, was the only part known. In A. Hdf/ei a 

 side view of the entire head is presented to view, triangular in shajje, with a 

 rounded snout, showing the large eye-orbits, external nostrils, and series of alveolar 

 cavities. A detached ramus of the jaw, most probably of the same animal, also 

 shows the remains of a dental series, a well-defined articulating extremity, and the 

 division between the dcntary and augiUar bones. Detached teeth near this jaw 



