144 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 



The population in 1859 was one-third larger than in 1851, when the 

 census was taken. At Seychelles and the other dependencies of 

 Mauritius there are 8,001 souls. This great increase is due to 

 arrival of the coolies, whose contract term of residence is five years ; 

 and, as already stated, the treatment they receive and the wag9S 

 they earn, ensure a continuous supply of Indian labour." 



SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY NOTES. 



GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 



ON SOME ADDITIONAL EBMAINS OF LAND ANIMALS IN THE COAL MEASURES 07 



NOVA SCOTIA. — BY J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.G.S., PRINCIPAL OF MCGILL 



COLLEGE, MONTREAL. 



(From the Journal of (he Geological Society of London, FehrtMry,\9i&i,.) 

 In the long range of rapidly wasting cliffs at the South Joggins, every succes- 

 sive year exposes new examples of erect trees and other fossils ; and, as the 

 removal of the fallen debris is equally rapid with the wasting of the cliff, it is 

 only by repeated visits that the geologist can thoroughly appreciate the richness 

 of this remarkable section, while every renewed exploration is certain to be 

 rewarded by new facts and specimens. The present notice is intended to 

 record the gleanings obtained in my last visit, in connexion with the presenta- 

 tion to the Society of a suite of specimens of the fossil Reptiles and other land- 

 animals of the locality, which I desire to deposit in the Museum of the Society, 

 that they may be more fully studied by comparative anatomists, and may remain 

 as types of the species, accessible to British geologists. 



In the bed which has hitherto alone afforded reptilian remains in the erect 

 trees, two additional examples of these were exposed. One was on the beach, 

 and in part removed by the sea. The other was in the cliff, but so far dis- 

 engaged that a miner succeeded in bringing it down for me. In the first 

 comparatively little was found. It afforded only a few shells of Pupa vetusta, 

 and scattered bones of a full-grown individual of Dendrerpiton Acadianum 



The second tree was more richly stored ; and, being in situ, was very instruct- 

 ive as to the mode of occurrence of the remains. Like all the other trees in 

 which reptilian bones have been found, it sprang immediately from the surface 

 of the six-inch coal in Group XV. of my section,* which is also Coal No. 15 of 

 Sir W. E. Logan's section.f Its diameter at the base was 2 feet, and its height 

 6 feet, above which, however, an appearance of additional height was given by 

 the usual funnel-shaped sinking of the overlying beds toward the cavity of the 

 trunk. The bark is well preserved in the state of bituminous coal, and presents 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. ix. p. 58, and vol. x. p. 20. 

 t Reports of Geol. Survey of Canada, 1845. 



