22 
Large numbers of new genera and species made their appear- 
ance, some of them ro doubt across the North Sea Plain, but no 
mammalian remains have been found here, though on some parts 
of the continent they are abundant. The kind of mammalian life 
then prevalent will be seen from the next slide; the whole of the 
species are extinct. And we are without any remains of Man. 
According to Professor Boyd Dawkins we have no right to expect 
them. It will be seen how improbable, nay, how impossible it is 
that Man, the highest and most specialized of all created forms; 
should have had a place in the Mivcene world. The evolution of 
the animal kingdom recorded in the rocks had at this time advanced 
as far as, but no farther than, the Quadrumana. Although this 
reasoning has been controverted by Jukes Brown, I find that Mr. 
Evans, in his recent address to the Geological section of the 
British Association this year, expresses this same opinion of the 
Tertiary period generally, and founds it on’ the same reasoning. It 
is only right however to mention that the existence of Miocene 
Man is believed in by some gcod authorities. 
So far we have no signs of the existence of our country as an 
island. But now a depression set in towards the east, and 
continued into and through Pliocene times. The land connection 
with Greenland was considerably narrowed but not broken through, 
unless perhaps in the latter part of the period. It appears almost 
certain that the extreme south-west of England sank, and that 
Cornwall became a small archipelago, for early Pliocene deposits 
have been found at St. Erth. Itis noticed that no northern forms 
have been found in these beds—a fact which seems to show there 
was no communication between the Arctic and the Atlantic. The 
south part of the North Sea district was elevated as shown on the 
map, while all the other part became so depressed that free 
communication was opened with the Arctic Ocean, thus enabling 
species of northern shell-fish to find their way south. There was 
still connection on the south with Europe, the English Channel 
forming the valley of a large river flowing to the west and receiving 
as tributaries the streams from France on the left bank and from 
southern England on the right. The Chalk Range was continuous 
across from Dover, and perhaps also from the Isle of Wight. 
The best known Pliocene deposits of England are the Orags of 
Norfolk and Suffolk, belonging to the later portions of the period. 
The contents of the Norwich Crag tell us there must have been a 
large estuary formed by a river coming from the west or northwest. 
From the nature of the pebbles brought down it appears to have 
been the Trent, which at that time flowed through the oolitic and 
chalk ridges of Lincolnshire, and was one of a group of rivers 
which helped to form the gap in the chalk now known as The 
Wash. 
