172 LIFE ON THE EARTH. 



Wiirtemberg. In respect of the Stonesfield fossils, 

 this is not the only evidence presented by that curious 

 deposit of similarity of Mesozoic life in the north, 

 and Csenozoic life in the antipodal region of the south. 

 It extends to other groups, both of the land and sea, 

 and almost justifies the notion of some affinity even 

 in the systems of life. For just as at Stonesfield, so 

 in Australia, small insectivorous marsupial mammals 

 are associated with Cycadaceous Plants and Ferns; 

 as now in the seas surrounding Australia, Terebratula 

 and Rhynchonella, Trigonia and Cucullsea, consort with 

 Turtles and the Cestraciont Sharks, near reefs of 

 Coral, and rivers tenanted by Gavialian Crocodiles, 

 so at Stonesfield in the older time, similar animals 

 in similar combination. 



What does this teach us ? Are we looking upon 

 two partially similar but really separate creations 

 suited to partially similar conditions in very different 

 periods of time ? Or is the life-system of the modern 

 Australian land and sea truly derived in some of its 

 components by descent with modification from the 

 older periods of the world, and preserved to this 

 our day, notwithstanding displacement over half the 

 circumference of the globe, and all the vicissitudes 

 of an immensity of time ? 



Whoever has the courage to adopt the latter 

 view, must accept with it the obvious inference that 



