Scientific Gleanings, 11 



of tigers, elephants, and other animals found in this country, in 

 Siberia and other parts of the world where the climate was much 

 colder than was supposed to be compatible with their existence. 

 That there was undoubted evidence that these animals could adapt 

 themselves to cold and temperate climates as well as to torrid 

 ones, and remarked that the conditions of animal life were not 

 tho.-e of climate, but of food and geniet, wherever there was the 

 prey undisturbed by man, there also would be the destroyer. 

 They had evidence from the writings of Julius Caesar, of the exist- 

 ence of England, 2000 years ago, of three distinct species of 

 animals, including two gigantic species of ox, and one of the 

 reindeer, and he was himself satisfied that thev had once a native 

 British lion, all of which however, were now extinct in this country, 

 and he saw nothing in the remains which had been discovered at 

 Brixham to lead him to suppose that the animals lived before the 

 historic period, or which was inconsistent with the concurrent 

 existence of a rude race of barbarians. At the same time he was 

 open to conviction, and would be very glad to see a good fossil 

 human being, which should prove that man had been much longer 

 upon the earth than historical evidence led them to suppose. 



President — "W. Hopkins, Esq. 



The President said the existence of mammalian life in its earlier 

 stages on the surface of our planet, the condition of its existence, 

 and the period of its introduction, have always furnished ques 

 tions of the highest philosophical as well as palaBontological inter- 

 est. You will be aware that some geologists regard each new 

 discovery of mammalian remains, in formations preceding the 

 older tertiaries, as a fresh indication of the probable existence of 

 mammalia in those earlier periods in which no positive proof of 

 their existence has yet been obtained ; while others regard such 

 discoveries only as leading us to an ultimate limit, which will 

 hereafter define a period of the introduction of mammalia on the 

 surface of the earth, long posterior to that of the first introduc- 

 tion of animal life. Be this as it may, every new discovery of 

 the former existence of this highest class of animals must be a 

 matter of great geological interest. An important discovery of 

 this kind has recently been made, principally by the persevering 

 exertions of Mr. Beckles, who has detected in the Purbeck beds 

 a considerable number of the remains of small mammals. The 

 whole of them are, I believe, in the hands of our President, Prof. 



