THE GEOLOGIST 



MAY, 1861. 



A LECTURE ON "COAL." 



Br J. W. Salter, F.G.S. 



(Continued from page 131 J 



There is less to be said about the animals found fossil in the coal 

 than about the plants. And for this reason, that the vegetables 

 formed the coal ; the shells and crustaceous creatures, and fish, 

 and reptiles, were but visitors : or if they lived upon the spot, bore no 

 larger proportion to the stately jungle that sheltered them, than the 

 denizens of our own forests now-a-days do to the trees and under- 

 growth which give them food and habitation. 



Still, animals are far from rare ; and the common ones are chiefly 

 bivalve shells and ivorms. The truly land animals are but few. 

 A rare insect or two has been found in our own country. Dr. 

 Mantell discovered the wing of a fly not unlike the dragon-fly, 

 and supposed to belong to the American genus Gorydalis. This in- 

 sect is figured in Sir R. I. Murchison's Siluria,* and is now in the 

 British Museum. And one or two beetles, or rather what have 

 been supposed to be beetles, have been found in Coalbrooke Dale. 

 Cockroaches and dockets have left their wings in tolerable plenty in 

 the coal- shales of Saxony .f No doubt they were welcome there amid 

 the coal-solitudes, and put a little life into them. They are far from 

 welcome now. I recommend all who may live in the neighbourhood 

 of the coals to give a little time to hunting for the relics of these old 



* 2nd Ed. 1859, p. 321. 

 f See Dunker and Von Meyer, Palasontographica, vol. iv 

 VOL. IV. V 



