Proceedings. 103 



infer from these facts that the continent which this great 

 river drained, and of which Britain then formed a part, was 

 situated to the north-west in an area now occupied by the 

 North Atlantic Ocean ; and that this continent was formed 

 partly of rocks of the Oolitic formation, and probably had 

 highlands where quartzose rocks, such as we now find in 

 Scotland, were largely prevalent. 



We know, too, that the climate of this northern continent 

 was very different to what we might have expected, judging 

 from the conditions which exist in this region of the Northern 

 Hemisphere at the present day, for, instead of a temperate 

 cUmate, the animals and vegetables which flourished give 

 plain evidence of a decidedly hot one. Thus we get among 

 the relics of the vegetable Ufe which grew on the low-lying 

 marshes and slopes of this delta, or were borne down by the 

 waters from the interior of the continent and buried in the 

 sediment, such forms as Palms, Cycads, Pines, Araucarias, 

 Tree Perns, Pandanus or Screw Pine ; and Zamia, a form 

 between the Ferns and Palms, resembling the former in the 

 leaves unrolling, and the latter in their general habit. And 

 wherever we find reUcs of the vegetable life of that period, 

 one thing strikes us — that the great majority of plants 

 belongs to the Gymnogens, and that there is an utter absence 

 of Exogenous plants, such as our present trees. This is 

 worthy of notice, for we shall see presently that these latter 

 afterwards became very plentiful. 



But while our continent supported a rich growth of the 

 vegetation proper to a hot climate, life was not wanting in 

 its waters. Thus we find great masses of the agglomerated 

 shells of Water Snails, Paludina, now forming the solid lime- 

 stone of the Weald clay. Ordinary double- shelled Mollusca 

 or LameUibranchs, too, lived in these fresh waters, among 

 them species of the genus Unio, very like the common fresh- 

 water Mussel we now find in the Mole. In some places, 

 possibly pools left by the overflowing waters, the small 

 crustaceans known as Cyjms, the Water Flea, were so 

 numerous that their shells, embedded in the clay, give to it 

 quite a shaly character — that is, it is easy to split it along 



