150 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



these differences, as they are repeated under the same isothermal lines, 

 between the eastern and western shores of the Old World in the same 

 order as along the eastern and western shores of North America ; 

 so much so that the northern Chinese and Japanese vegetation coin- 

 cides very closely with that of the Atlantic States, whilst that of the 

 Pacific coasts of America and that of Europe agree more extensively. 



This picture would be incomplete did I not institute a farther com- 

 parison between the present vegetation of those regions and the fos- 

 sil plants of modern geological epochs. If we compare, namely, the 

 tertiary fossil plants of Europe with those living on the spot now, we 

 shall be struck with differences of about the same value as those 

 already mentioned between the eastern and western coasts of the 

 continents under the same latitudes. Compare, for instance, a list of 

 the fossil trees and shrubs from Oeningen, with a catalogue of trees 

 and shrubs of the eastern and western coasts, both of Europe, Asia, 

 and North America, and it will be seen that the differences they ex- 

 hibit scarcely go beyond those shown by these different florae under 

 the same latitudes. But what is quite extraordinary and unexpected, 

 is the fact that the European fossil plants of that locality resemble 

 more closely the trees and shrubs which grow at present in the east- 

 ern parts of North America, than those of any other part of the 

 world ; thus allowing us to express correctly the differences already 

 mentioned between the vegetation of the eastern and western coasts 

 of the continents, by saying that the present eastern American 

 flora, and I may add, the fauna also,* and probably also that of 

 Eastern Asia, have a more ancient character than those of Europe 

 and of Western North America. The plants, especially the trees 

 and shrubs growing in our days in this country and in Japan, are, 

 as it were, old-fashioned ; they bear the mark of former ages; a 

 peculiarity which agrees with the general aspect of North America, 

 the geological structure of which indicates that this region was .a 

 large continent long before extensive tracts of land had been lifted 

 above the level of the sea in any other part of the world. 



The extraordinary analogy which exists between the present flora 



* The characteristic genera Lagomys, Chelydra and the large Salamanders with per- 

 manent gills remind us of the fossils of Oeningen, for the present fauna of Japan, as 

 well as the Liquidambar, Carya, Taxodium, Gleditschia, etc. etc. 



