Europe and America formerly joined. 



249 



Beds, or the caves of Montmartre. On these cliffs, too, is 

 scored the history of the past. Here lie the little Nucidce, still 

 crimson and pink as when they first settled down through the 

 water into their bed of sand ; and teeth of dichodons still bright 

 with enamel. The struggle of life raged as fiercely then as 

 now. And the pierced skull of the palaeothere still tells where 

 it received its death-wound from its foe the crocodile. 



But other things do they reveal. They plainly show, as 

 was, I believe, first suggested by Mr. Searles Wood, that in 

 the Middle-Eocene period Europe and America were connected. 

 The pachyderms of Hordle are allied to the tapirs of the New 

 World. The same alligators still swim in the warm rivers of 

 Florida : and the same type of sauroid fish, whose scales 

 spangle the Freshwater Beds, is now only found in the West. 



Shells from, the Brook Beds. 



K K 



249 



