Scenery of the carboniferous forests--Contrast in the appearance of coal districts at the present day--Abundance of animal life in the Carboniferous era--Advantages of palæontology over fossil-botany--Carboniferous fauna--Actiniæ--Cup-corals--Architecture of the present day might be improved by study of the architecture of the Carboniferous period--Mode of propagation of corals--A forenoon on the beach--Various stages in the decomposition of shells--Sea-mat--Bryozoa--Fenestella--Retepora--Stone-lilies-- Popular superstitions--Structure of the stone-lilies--Aspect of the sea-bottom on which the stone-lilies flourished--Sea-urchins--Crustacea, their high antiquity--Cyprides--Architecture of the Crustacea and mollusca contrasted--King-crabs, 59 CHAPTER VI. Carboniferous fauna continued--George Herbert's ode on "Man"--His idea of creation--What nature teaches on this subject--Molluscous animals--Range of species in time proportionate to their distribution in space--Two principles of renovation and decay exhibited alike in the physical world and the world of life--Their effects--The mollusca--Abundantly represented in the carboniferous rocks--Pteropods--Brachiopods--Productus--Its alliance with Spirifer--Spirifer--Terebratula--Lamellibranchs--Gastropods-- Land-snail of Nova Scotia--Cephalopods--Structure of orthoceras--Habits of living nautilus, 86 CHAPTER VII. Classification of the naturalist not always correspondent with the order of nature--Incongruous grouping of animals in the invertebrate division--Rudimentary skeleton of the cephalopods--Introduction of the vertebrate type into creation--Ichthyolites of the carboniferous rocks--Their state of keeping--Classification of fossil fishes--Placoids--Ichthyodorulites--Ganoids--Their structure exemplified in the megalichthys and holoptychius--Cranium of megalichthys--Its armature of scales--Microscopic structure of a scale--Skeleton of megalichthys--History of the discovery of the holoptychius--Confounded with megalichthys--External ornament of holoptychius--Its jaws and teeth--Microscopic structure of the teeth--Paucity of terrestrial fauna in coal measures--Insect remains--Relics of reptiles--Concluding summary of the characters of the Carboniferous fauna--Results, 110 CHAPTER VIII.