352 AUSTRALIAN, SOUTH AFRICAN, AND INDIAN COAL-MEASURES, 



northern parts, as before, the western shores of the Australian 

 islands have a drier and colder climate, and a much less 

 abundant growth of the eastern flora. We cannot see what the 

 vegetation of New Zealand is, but conjecture it to be scanty, 

 developed as it must have been from very small remnants 

 of a scanty indigenous flora. Few forms could have survived 

 the severities which had destroyed the Australian Lepidodendra. 

 (For even here in Australia the destruction of species must have 

 been enormous, and the number of survivors very few, as the 

 vast profusion of individuals and fewness of species which is so 

 marked a feature in our Upper and Middle Coal Measures clearly 

 shows. Yet here was a large quasi-continental area, extending 

 far towards the north, on which to draw for replenishment of the 

 recovered land, while New Zealand does not seem at that time to 

 have had any advantage of the sort.) The emergence of the land 

 has again barred the channels of the old currents from the west 

 and south, and the genial, or at least equable, climate of the 

 former period has been renewed. Why, then, has not the former 

 vegetation recovered its place ? The same plants as flourished 

 here in the reign of the Lepidodendron flora of Australia are 

 flourishing still in jungles as thick and luxuriant as before, in 

 Brazil, and in vast regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Why 

 not, therefore, in Australia also ? The answer is simple. The 

 destruction was so complete that it left no Australian asylum in 

 which a remnant might have been preserved for the future 

 restoration of the race. The communication between Australia 

 and Asia was also interrupted, so that re-migration from the 

 northern continent was impossible. Besides, the climate seems 

 to have altered in respect of average temperature. It seems now 

 to be rather cool than warm, though exceedingly equable and 

 favourable to the growth of ferns. 



In the Upper Marine beds we observe a repetition of the 

 submergence of land, thereby reopening the cold water channels, 

 lowering the snow line, and stretching out the glaciers downwards 

 even to reach the sea. 



