1853.] LYELL, AND DAWSON — REPTILE AND LAND SHELL. 59 



and another containing in its interior the first examples yet known 

 in America of Reptihan bones, together with what we beheve to be a 

 Land Shell, of which last also no instance seems to have been pre- 

 viously observed in rocks of the Carboniferous sera. After we had 

 already, in the course of this investigation, met with fragments of 

 Plants, such as Ferns, Poacitesi, Nceggei'athial, Sigillaria,Stigmaria, 

 and Calamite in the inside of several trees, we at length found near 

 the base of an upright trunk some dermal plates, together with bones, 

 one of which we conjectured to be the femur of a Reptile, feeling 

 sure at least that it differed from any Fish bones with which we were 

 acquainted. This led us to return next day to examine the same 

 trunk more thoroughly. We accordingly broke up the remaining 

 portion, and found what we imagined might possibly be the jaws and 

 teeth of a Labyrinthodon, which we supposed to belong to the same 

 individual as the bones. These osseous remains were scattered about 

 in the interior of the trunk among fragments of wood converted into 

 charcoal, as if they had accumulated while the tree was rotting away. 

 All the fragments were cemented together by a dark-coloured cal- 

 careo-argillaceous and sandy matrix. From their position in the tree, 

 we concluded, or rather guessed, the fossil relics to be those of an air- 

 breather, but pretending to no sufficient osteological knowledge to 

 determine a point of such importance, we lost no time in submitting 

 the collection to Professor Jeffries Wyman, of Harvard University, at 

 Boston, who soon declared his opinion that the bones of the extre- 

 mities resembled those of the Batrachian Reptile called Menobran- 

 chus, which now inhabits the Ohio river and Lake Champlain. In 

 regard to its dimensions, he estimated this fossil ichthyoid quadruped 

 to have been between 2 and 3 feet in length. In breaking up the 

 fragments of rock. Professor Wyman detected in the same matrix 

 a series of nine small vertebrae, two of them having what appeared to 

 be short ribs connected with them (like those of a Salamander) . These 

 vertebrae he believes to be dorsal or lumbar, and to have belonged to 

 an adult individual of a different and much smaller species of reptile, 

 not exceeding 6 inches in length, whereas the Dendrerpeton Acadia- 

 num was probably 2^ feet long. 



Professor Wyman, feeling considerable diffidence as to his deter- 

 mination, in consequence of his limited means of osteological compa- 

 rison, requested one of the authors to show his notes, together with 

 the specimens, to Prof. Owen, before they were laid before the Geo- 

 logical Society. To this proposal Prof. Owen has promptly and 

 kindly acceded, fully confirming the principal conclusion to which 

 the American anatomist had arrived, namely, that the characters of 

 the fossils are those of Perennibranchiate Batrachians. The Hun- 

 terian Professor has also, in compliance with a suggestion of Dr. 

 Wyman, added notes of his own on several points where he differed 

 somewhat in opinion as to anatomical details. Prof. Quekett, of the 

 College of Surgeons, has had the kindness to examine microscopi- 

 cally longitudinal and transverse sections of one of the larger bones ; 

 and he states that it exhibits very decidedly Batrachian structure, 

 and that the bone-cells (PI. III. fig. 8) closely resemble those seen 



