AIR-BREATHERS OF THE COAL PERIOD. 83 



ing whether they retained the superficial markings of Sigillariae, 

 and with reference to the fossils contained in them. It was while 

 examining a pile of these " fossil grindstones," that we were sur- 

 prised by finding on one of them what seemed to be fragments of 

 bone. On careful search other bones appeared, and they had the 

 aspect, not of remains of fishes, of which many species are found 

 fossil in these coal measures, but rather of limb-bones of a quadru- 

 ped. The fallen pieces of the tree were carefully taken up, and 

 other bones disengaged, and at length a jaw with teeth made its 

 appearance. We felt quite confident, from the first, that these 

 bones were reptilian ; and the whole, being carefully packed and 

 labelled, were taken by Sir Charles to the United States, and sub- 

 mitted to Prof. J. Wyman of Cambridge ; who recognized their rep- 

 tilian character, and prepared descriptive notes of the principal 

 bones, which appeared to have belonged to two species. He also 

 observed among the fragments an object of different character^ 

 apparently a shell ; which was recognized by Dr. Gould of Boston, 

 and subsequently by Mr. Deshayes, as probably a land-snail, and 

 has since been named Pupa vetusta. 



The specimens were subsequently taken to London and re-exa- 

 mined by Prof. Owen, who confirmed Wy man's inferences, added 

 other characters to the description, and named the larger and 

 better preserved species Dendrerpeton Acadianum, in allusion to 

 its discovery in the interior of a tree, and to its native country of 

 Acadia or Nova Scotia. With the aid of Plate III, I shall now 

 endeavour to describe this species as fully as the materials at my 

 command will allow, and shall then make some remarks on its 

 affinities, habitat, and mode of life. It is necessary to state in 

 explanation of the fragmentary character of the remains repre- 

 sented in the plate, that in the decay of the animals imbedded in 

 the erect trees at the Joggins, their skeletons have become disar- 

 ticulated, and the portions scattered, either by falling into the in- 

 terstices of the vegetable fragments in the bottom of the hollow 

 trunks, or by the water, with which these may have sometimes been 

 parti)- filled. We thus can obtain only separate bones ; and though all 

 of these are no doubt present in each case, it is impossible in break- 

 ing up the hard matrix to recover more than a small proportion of 

 them. For this reason I have been obliged to have recourse, not merely 

 to the original specimen whose discovery is noticed above, but to 

 three others subsequently obtained by me ; all however belong- 

 ing, on the evidence of the teeth and more important bones, to one 



