6 AIR-BREATHERS OF THE COAL PERIOD. 



the claws of a tortoise in creeping up a bank of stiff clay ; they 

 were probably of the same nature and origin with those found by 

 Logan at Horton. The others were of very different appearance. 

 They consisted of two series of strongly marked elongated impres- 

 sions, without distinct marks of toes, in series four inches distant 

 from each other, and with an intervening tail mark. They seem 

 to have been produced by an animal wading in soft mud, so that 

 deep holes, rather than regular impressions, marked its footsteps, 

 and that in the hind foot, the heel touched the surface, giving a 

 plantigrade appearance to the tracks. Rain marks had been 

 impressed on the surface after the animal had passed over it, and 

 these had probably aided in obliterating the finer parts of the im- 

 pressions. These observations were published in the Journal of 

 the Geological Society of London, vols. 1st and 2nd. 



Shortly afterward, Dr. Harding, of Windsor, when examining 

 a cargo of sandstone which had been landed at that place from 

 Parrsboro', found on one of the slabs a very distinct series of foot- 

 prints nearly of the size of those previously observed. Dr. Hard- 

 ing's specimen is now in the museum of King's College, Windsor. 

 Its impressions are distinct, and not very different in size and form 

 from those above described as found at Horton Bluff. The rocks 

 at that place are probably of nearly the same age with those of 

 Parrsboro'. I afterward examined the place from which this slab 

 had been quarried, and satisfied myself that the beds are Carboni- 

 ferous, and probably Lower Carboniferous. They were ripple- 

 marked and sun-cracked, and I thought I could detect trifid foot- 

 prints, though more obscure than those in Dr. Harding's slab. 

 Similar footprints are also stated to have been found by Dr. Gesner, 

 at Parrsboro'. 



I have since observed several instances of such impressions at 

 the Joggins, at Horton, and near Windsor, showing that they are 

 by no means rare, and that reptilian animals existed in no incon- 

 siderable numbers throughout the coal-field of Nova Scotia, and 

 from the begining to the end of the carboniferous period. Two of 

 the more interesting examples are figured with those already des- 

 cribed. On comparing these with one another, it will be observed 

 that Logan's, Harding's, and one of mine are of similar dimensions 

 and character, and may have been made by one kind of animal, 

 possibly Dendrerpelon, which must have crept on short limbs over 

 the sand. The other belongs to a smaller animal, which probably 

 travelled on longer limbs, more in the manner of an ordinary quad- 



