NOTE ON THE GENUS HYLOPUS OF DAWSON. 
247 
ARTICLE VI. 
NOTE ON THE GENUS HYLOPUS OF DAW^SON. 
By G. F. Matthew, LL.D., F.R.S.C. 
Read November 3, 1903. 
Sir Wm. J. Dawson describes the several footprints of quad- 
rupeds of the Carboniferous age obtained from the Joggins. 
Parrsboro, Horton and Sydney, Nova Scotia, under the two 
genera, Sauropus and Hylopus. 
The latter genus being Daw^son’s own, it behooves us to ex- 
amine the types and learn what its characters are. He defined 
the genus Hylopus as follows : “ Smaller footprints [than Sauro- 
pus, Lea] digitigrade, and made by animals having a long stride, 
and hind and fore feet nearly equal. Five toes. Probably foot- 
prints of Microsauria, and possibly of Dendrerpeton.”^ 
This genus was based upon three species described in Sir 
William’s “ Air-breathers of the Coal Period,”* ** and figured in 
the same essay, but not then named ; in the later essay they have 
names given them, and an additional species is described. There 
is so much variation in the form of these footprints that they 
cannot all be contained in the genus Hylopus, and it becomes 
necessary to select a type or types to represent the genus. There 
are two forms which appear to come nearer the ideal of Dawson’s 
genus than the others, these are H. Logani and H. Hardingi. 
It would appear from the figures given in the ‘‘ Airbreathers” 
that both of these species were described from qasts, one of which, 
H. Logani^ is in the Redpath Museum, Montreal, the other, H. 
Hardingi, in that of King’s College, Windsor, N. S. Both 
species are of Lower Carboniferous age, and come from measures 
underlying the Carboniferous limestone. The author has been 
favored with an opportunity to examine both of these casts, and 
* Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Vol. XXII, Sec. iv, p. 77, 1894. 
**■ Air breathers of the Coal period of Nova Scotia, Montreal, 1863. 
