Hull— Raised Beach of Cantyre. S 



overlapping scutes, determines its character in a remarkable manner. 

 These remains were collected by Mr. Galton of the Geological 

 Survey of Ireland. 



The remaining genus is represented by portions of the posterior 

 half of an animal nearly seven feet in length, which Mr. Huxley 

 is inclined to believe may belong to the genus Anthracosaunis, or 

 one closely allied to it. 



We cannot dwell upon these new and remarkable discoveries, and 

 additions to the reptilian fauna of the Palasozoic epoch (Coal period) 

 without reference to our often preconceived views upon the early 

 distribution of vertebrate life upon the earth. We should be very 

 cautious in assuming upon negative evidence, the non-existence of 

 any group of the animal kingdom, which may have long since 

 lived and passed away, but whose remains are nevertheless as yet 

 undiscovered, nay almost unsuspected. But admitting the value of 

 such deductions, the process must indeed be an exhaustive one 

 before the non-existence of any group or form can be held as 

 established, because we have not yet succeeded in ascertaining its 

 existence in a fossil state in any region of the globe. Like many 

 other discoveries of the same kind, the present one only tends to 

 shew the necessity for caution in generalizing too positively upon 

 negative evidence as to the non-occurrence of any forms of Verte- 

 brates which may have lived, but whose remains have not yet been 

 found. 



Museum of Practical Geology, 

 Jermyn Street. 



Note. — Professor Huxley, and Mr. E. P. Wright, are preparing a joint Memoir 

 upon these remains, for the Royal Irish Academy. — E. E. 



II. — The Eaised Beach of Cantyee. 

 By Edward Hull, B.A., F.G.S., etc. 



AMONGST the many objects of interest to the naturalist in that 

 remarkable limb of the Western Highlands, variously written 

 "Cantyre," "Cantire," or "Kintire," are the raised beach and sea- 

 worn rocks which may be traced all along the coast under varying 

 forms and aspects. This beach is the same as that which has been 

 described by various writers as skirting the coast of Scotland from 

 the Eoman Wall northward, and winding through the innumerable 

 fiords and sea-locks of the Firth of Clyde and the western coast ; 

 and to which attention was first called, I think, by Mr. Smith of 

 Jordanhill, in 1836 and 1838, in papers read before the Geological 

 and Wemerian Societies, and with other memoirs condensed into a 

 small volume, in 1862.^ It is the last and by far the most strongly 

 pronounced of all the raised beaches of Scotland — -of which there 

 are several — and is very graphically described by Mr. Geikie in his 

 recent work.^ Now it is worthy of remark, that each of these 

 authors draws opposite conclusions regarding the age of this raised 

 beach from the same evidence ; for Mr. Smith, of Jordanhill, con- 



1 Researches in Newer Pliocene and Post-Tertiary Geology. Glasgow. 

 " Scenery and Geology of Scotland, p. 320. 



