18G1.] DAWSON KEPTILES IN THE COAL. 5 



3. Notice of the Discovery 0/ Additional Remains o/Land Animals 

 i/i the Coal-Measures of the South Joggins, Nova Scotia. By 

 J. ^y. Dawson, LL.D., F.G.S., Principal of McGill College. 

 In the long i*ange of rapidly Avasting cliffs at the South Joggins, 

 eveiy successive 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 cHft*, it is only by repeated visits that the 

 geologist can thorouglily appreciate the richness of this remarkable 

 section, while every renewed exploration is certain to be rew^arded 

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

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

 presentation to the Society of a suite of specimens of the fossil 

 Reptiles and other land-animals of the locality, which I desire to de- 

 posit 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 

 its 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 disengaged 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 Dendrerpeton Aeadkinum. 



The second tree was more richly stored ; and, being m situ, was 

 very instnictive 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 jS'o. 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 externally a longitudinally wrinkled surface without 

 ribs or leaf-scars ; but within, on the ^' ligneous '^ surface, or that 

 of the inner bark, there are broad flat ribs and transversely elongated 

 scars. The appearances are precisely those w^hich might be expected 

 on an old trunk of my SifjiUaria Brownii, to w^hich species this tree 

 may have very well belonged:!:. 



The contents of the trunk correspond with those of others pre- 

 viously found. Xi the bottom is the usual layer of mineral charcoal, 

 consisting of the fallen wood and bark of the tree itself. Above 

 this, about 2 feet of its height are fdled with a confused mass of 

 vegetable fragments, consisting of Cordaites, Lepidodendron, JJlo- 

 dendron, Lepidostrobtus, Ccdamites, Tricjonocaipum, stipes and fronds 

 of Ferns, and mineral charcoal ; the whole imbedded in a sandy paste 

 blackened by coaly matter. In and at the top of this mass occur 

 the animal remains. The remainder of the trunk is occupied with 



* Quart. Joum. Gcol. 80c. \o\. ix. p. TjS, and vol. x. p. 20. 

 t Reports of Geol. Survey of Canada, 1845. 

 \ Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. No. 68. p. 52.'j. 



