THE GEOLOGIST 
MAY, 1861. 
•A LECTURE ON "COAL." 
By J. W. Salter, F.G.S. 
(Continued from page 131.^ 
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 o^vn 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 Corydalis. This in- 
sect is figured in Su' 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 crickets 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 tiliese old 
* 2nd Ed. 1859, p. 321. 
t See Dunker and Yon Meyer, Palajontographica, vol. iv 
VOL. IV. V 
