Correspondence. 85 



t©ne of tlie Fossil Collectors of the Geological Survey of Ireland, — 

 (since named by Professor Huxley Keraterpeton Galvani) , was, at the 

 same meeting, for the first time, brought before the Society by me, 

 ©n which occasion I alluded to it as being a form of lizard, allied 

 to Apateon pedestris, of H. von Meyer, a fossil reptile, which 

 Professor Goldfuss, of Bonn, afterwards included in his genus 

 Archegosaurus, stating also that these interesting Eeptilian remains 

 appeared to me to be comparable with those described as occurring 

 in the Coal-field of Saarbriick, between Strasburg and Treves. 

 These fossil reptiles were accompanied by fish, of which I had 

 previously identified the following species : — Megalichthys Hibberti, 

 HoloptycMus Portlocki, and spines of Gyr acanthus formosus or tubercu- 

 latus (the two latter being probably identical). 



My opinion was asked and freely given on these fossils, both to 

 Mr. Brownrigg and others, and a list of the associated plants and 

 fish then collected was supplied by me to that gentleman before 

 the meeting in June of last year, which he duly acknowledged. I 

 was also requested to examine the fossils collected by Mr. Wall and 

 Mr. Edge, and gave my opinion upon them, which was also acknow- 

 ledged at the meeting of the Society of November 8. It was difficult, 

 however, to offer more than a conjectural opinion as to the precise 

 character of several of the fossils in that early stage of the collec- 

 tion; though, from the additional specimens since collected, these 

 difficulties were cleared up, some of them proving to be new forms, 

 and others serving to elucidate those which were before obscure. 



Professor Huxley has since, in conjunction with Dr. E. P. Wright, 

 read a paper on these fossils before the Eoyal Irish Academy ; and 

 as the part I took in first pointing out their true character was not 

 alluded to on that occasion, I consider myself justified in stating the 

 facts as they occurred. 



As the concluding paragraph of Mr. Ethridge's notice of this 

 important addition to the fauna of the Coal period may induce the 

 belief that the remains of such forms of Eeptilia in the true Coal are 

 of unusual occurrence in that formation, it may be useful to cite the 

 principal instances extant of the discovery of such fossils, according 

 to the date of their publication. We find then, quoting Sir C. 

 Lyell,' that as early as 1844, H. von Meyer described the Apateon 

 pedestris as the first skeleton of a true Eeptile from the Coal of 

 Miinsterappel, in Ehenish Bavarial 



Three years later, in 1847, Professor Von Dechen found in the Coal- 

 field of Saarbruck the skeletons of three distinct species of air- 

 breathing Eeptiles, described by Professor Goldfuss under the name 

 of Archegosaurus, a form of reptile which he considered to be trans- 

 itional between the fish-like Batrachians and Lizards, 



Since then, in our own country. Professor Owen has given, in the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. ix. (1853), p. 67, 



1 Manual of Elementary Geology (1855), p. 400. 



^ Herman von Meyer, Apateon pedestris, aus der Steinkohlen formation von 

 Miinsterappel, in Leonhard and Bronn Neues Jahrb, 1844, p. 336, and Paleonto- 

 graphica J3d. I, Lief. 4, 1848, p. 153, 154. 



