4 AIR-BREATHERS OP THE COAL PERIOD. 



but well-marked footprints found by Sir W. E. Logan, in 1841 7 

 in the lower coal measures of Horton Bluff, in Nova Scotia ; and 

 as the authors of all our general works on geology have hitherto, 

 in so far as I am aware, failed to do justice to this discovery, I 

 shall notice it here in detail. In the year above mentioned, Sir 

 William, then Mr. Logan, examined the coal fields of Pennsylvania 

 and Nova Scotia, with the view of studying their structure, and ex" 

 tending the application of the discoveries as to Stigmaria under- 

 clays which he had made in the Welsh coal fields. On his return 

 to England, he read a paper on these subjects before the Geologi- 

 cal Society of London, in which he noticed the discovery of rep- 

 tilian footprints at Horton Bluff. The specimen was exhibited 

 at the meeting of the Society, and was, I believe, admitted on the 

 high authority of Prof. Owen, to be probably reptilian. Unfortun- 

 ately, Sir William's paper appeared only in abstract in the Trans- 

 actions ; and in this abstract, though the footprints are mentioned, 

 no opinion is expressed as to their nature. Sir William's own 

 opinion is thus stated 'n a letter to me, dated June, 1843, when 

 he was on his way to Canada to commence the survey which has 

 since developed so astonishing a mass of geological facts. 



" Among the specimens which I carried from Horton Bluff, one 

 is of very high interest. It exhibits the footprints of some reptilian 

 animal. Owen has no doubt of the marks being genuine footprints* 

 The rocks of Horton Bluff are below the gypsum of that neigh- 

 bourhood ; so that the specimen in question (if Lyell's views are 

 correct*) comes from the very bottom of the coal series, or at any 

 rate very low down in it, and demonstrates the existence of reptiles 

 at an earlier epoch than has hitherto been determined ; none having 

 been previously found below the magnesian limestone, or to give it 

 Murchison's new name, the 'Permian era.' " 



This extract is of interest, not merely as an item of evidence in 

 relation to the matter now in hand, but as a mark in the progress 

 of geological investigation. For the reasons above stated, the im- 

 portant discovery thus made in 1841, and published in 1842, was 

 overlooked ; and the discovery of reptilian bones by Von Dechen, 

 at Saarbruck, in 1844, and that of footprints by Dr. King in the 



* Sir Charles Lyell had then just read a paper announcing hia discovery 

 that the gypsiferous system of Nova Scotia is Lower Carboniferous, in 

 which he mentions the footprints referred to, as being reptilian. 



