MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 539 



clothed the heated rocks, were slug-like Nudibranchs, 

 whose forms have now for ever perished. I have 

 traced the habits and development of the curious 

 crab-like Trilobites, and gazed upon the shoals of 

 strange-formed Cephalopods that sported near the 

 surface. I have seen, clothed with darkling vege- 

 tation, islands clustered on the wide expanse, whose 

 shores then teemed with Lily-Encrinites and pon- 

 derous Madrepores. High-rising, in the carbon-laden 

 atmosphere, were Club -mosses eighty feet in 

 height, with leaves of similar proportions ; here 

 flourished also sombre pine-like trees ; Horse-tails, 

 with succulent and jointed stems, surmounted by 

 their scaly catkins, arborescent Ferns, marsh-loving 

 Stigmarice, Mosses, Lichens, and gigantic Fungi. 

 No flowers adorned the scene — no insect hordes en- 

 livened the air — no gambolling of monkeys was 

 seen among the trees, nor were heard hoarse notes 

 of screaming, gaudy-tinted parrots. I have wit- 

 nessed the burial of these vast primeval forests, 

 and seen them turned to coal. In gloomy swamps 

 I found the home of Archegosaurus — that monstrous 

 form, half-toad, half-lizard — pursuing awkwardly 

 the insect tribes around it, and followed with a 

 fearful eye those great and sauroid fishes that 

 ravaged with a greedy voracity these ancient waters. 

 Another epoch, and lo ! the waters had subsided, 

 and the flat and muddy shores were tenanted with 

 reptile life. That giant Newt Labyrinthodon, ap- 

 peared to my astonished sight, leaving, as he moved 

 along, lasting imprints of his huge and hand-like feet. 



