With the exception of a few small and worthless beds in Russia, the Permian is not known to contain any coal. The great swamps of the coal period had disappeared. In part they were raised up into rugged mountains. In part they were sunken into shallow sea areas. Thus, while there was much dry land, there was little opportunity for coal production, or for the existence of those rank forests which had accumulated so much vegetable matter in the Carboniferous age. In like manner the fauna of the Permian waters is poor. According to Murchison, the Permian limestones of Europe have afforded little more then one-third as many species of fossils as the older Carboniferous. The fossils themselves also have a stunted and depauperated aspect, indicating conditions of existence unfavourable to them. This is curiously seen in contrasting Davidson's beautiful illustrations of the British Lamp-shells of the Permian and Carboniferous periods. Another illustrative fact is the exceptionally small size of the fossils even in limestones of the Carboniferous period when these are associated with gypsum, red sandstones, and magnesian minerals; as, for instance, those of some parts of Nova Scotia. In truth, the peculiar chemical conditions conducive to the production of magnesian limestones and gypsum are not favourable to animal life, though no doubt compatible with its existence. Hence the rich fauna of the Carboniferous seas died out in the Permian, and was not renewed; and the Atlantic areas of the period are unknown to us. They were, however, probably very deep and abrupt in slope, and not rich in life. This would be especially the case if they were desolated by cold ice-laden currents.