248 NATURAL SCIENCE. 



JUNE, 



of Notorydes, while he shows that both the external resemblances of the 

 animal to the Golden M.o\e[Chrysochlons),2ind the similarity between the 

 skeleton of its trunk and that of the armadillos, are the result merely of 

 adaptation to a corresponding mode of life. We may even go further 

 and remark, that not only is Professor Cope mistaken in the views he 

 bases on Professor Stirling's writings (he does not appear to have 

 seen actual specimens) but he is also unfortunate in the concluding 

 generalisation on the fauna of Australia as compared with that of 

 South Africa. According to Giinther (Catal. Fishes, vol. vii., p. 373), 

 Gonorhynchus greyi is not a freshwater, but a marine fish, and occurs 

 both on the coasts of Australia, South Africa, and Japan. The com- 

 parison of the Chelonian faunas of South Africa and Australia is 

 particularly unfortunate, from the fact that the South African 

 Pleurodiran tortoises exhibit affinity with the South American, and 

 not with the Australian forms ; while the discovery of Insectivores in 

 Australia would only be comparable to the discovery of an emydian 

 Chelonian in that part of the world. 



The Glacial Period in the South of England. 



The difficult problem of the condition of the south of England 

 during the Glacial Period is again discussed by Professor Prestwich 

 and by Mr. Clement Reid in the May number of the Quarterly Journal 

 of the Geological Society (vol. xlviii., pp. 263-361). Professor Prestwich 

 concludes that the raised beaches on the coast of the English and 

 Bristol Channels are contemporaneous with the newer river-drifts of 

 the Thames and Somme valleys ; that an uplift not exceeding 120 feet 

 followed the formation of these beaches ; and then occurred the 

 period of the Coast Caves and their fauna, and of certain Raised 

 Dunes or Blown Sands. He further argues in favour of a subsequent 

 submergence of the land in one of the latest phases of the Glacial 

 Period. Evidence of this submergence, perhaps to an extent of 

 1,000 feet, is recognised in the remarkable accumulations of angular 

 gravel or " rubble-drift " that cannot be explained by the ordinary 

 action of weathering. Re-elevation followed after a short interval, 

 and during the emergence there was formed the main portion of 

 this " rubble-drift," which includes the accumulations known as 

 "head," the " Coombe Rock" of Sussex, &c. Some of the fissures 

 filled with ossiferous drift were also formed during the period of 

 elevation. The deposits that followed this final upheaval are those 

 grouped as Recent, including the Alluvium of our rivers. Hence it 

 is that Professor Prestwich concludes " that the Glacial times came, 

 geologically speaking, to within a measurable distance of our own 

 times, and that the transition was short and almost abrupt." 



Mr. Reid, on the other hand, deals not only with some of these 

 irregular accumulations, but also with the deposits representing 

 earlier phases of the Glacial Period, founding his remarks on a 



