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XII. On the Results of Recent Explorations of Erect Trees containing Animal Remains 
in the Coal formation of Nova Scotia. 
By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., C.M.G. 
Received October 11, 1881,—Read January 12, 1882. 
[Plates 39-47.] 
The occurrence of remains of land animals in the interior of erect fossil trees is, so far 
as yet known, confined to certain horizons in the coal-field of the South Joggins in 
Nova Scotia. These remains were first discovered by Sir Charles Lyell and the 
writer in the summer of 1851. They were found in fragments of the sandstone filling 
an erect Sigillaria which had fallen from the cliff near Coal Mine Point. As other 
erect trees occurred in the beds from which this was supposed to have fallen, search 
was made by the writer in subsequent visits for additional trees; but up to 1876 
only three of those which became accessible by the wasting of the beds were found to 
yield animal fossils. These, however, afforded many additional specimens, and several 
new species of Batrachians and Millipedes. The results of these explorations were 
published at various times in the Journal of the Geological Society of London,^ in a 
work entitled f Air-breathers of the Coal Period/ and in c Acadian Geology/ and 
Dr. Sctjdder described the new species of Millipedes in the Memoirs of the Boston 
Society of Natural History. 
The beds containing the productive trees being thus well known, and being exposed 
in a cliff and in a reef extending into the sea, it seemed probable that many others 
might be obtained by quarrying operations of no great difficulty. In 1878 the 
subject was brought under the notice of the Council of the Boyal Society, and a grant 
of <£50 was made from the Government Fund to aid in the extraction of these trees and 
the collection of their contents. With the aid of this grant, a thorough survey and 
examination has been made of the cliff and reef by Mr. Albert T. Hill, C.E., by 
Mr. W. B. Dawson, C.E., and by myself, with the kind aid of B. B. Barnhill, Esq., 
Superintendent of the Joggins Coal Mines. By these means, along with the removal 
of fallen debris and sand from the outcrop of the beds, twenty additional trees were 
discovered and were extracted by cutting and blasting; affording many additional 
* Vols, x., xyi., xyiii., xix, 
