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 undergrowth which give them food and habitation.

Still, animals are far from rare; and the common ones are chiefly bivalve shells and worms. 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 insect 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 crickets have left their wings in tolerable plenty in the coal-shales of Saxony. 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 insects, &c.