t'3] 



from the North Sea by Iceland, Faroes, and intermediate 

 lands, and from the South-Eastern Sea by the British 

 Islands, Western France, and intermediate lands. These 

 Eocene seas teemed with fish now only found in more 

 Southern latitudes ; while the inland lakes and rivers 

 abounded with reptilian life. On the land tropical flora 

 and fauna flourished, among the former being palms, 

 cypresses, and giant cacti, and among the latter, in 

 Lower Eocene times, large numbers of marsupial species, 

 in the Middle Eocene also lion-like carnivora, and in 

 Upper Eocene tapir-like animals, herds of Anchitheres 

 (ancestors of the horse), Hyaenodon (ancestors of hyaena), 

 and Lemurs. The Miocene period opened with a lower 

 temperature than that of the Eocene, and with a con- 

 siderable difference of surface level in Denmark and on 

 the South of England, the land having been upheaved 

 to such an extent as to leave no part of the country under 

 water, uniting Yorkshire with Denmark, and dividing 

 the South-Eastern Sea into two portions, the Northern 

 one stretching from Schleswig as far as a few miles from 

 the present Lincolnshire coast and then back to the 

 present mouth of the Scheldt ; and the latter stretching 

 from Boulogne-sur-Mer to Hastings and Portland Bill, 

 and back to Cherbourg. Otherwise the relationship 

 between land and water was much the same as in Eocene 

 times. The climate of the Meiocene period was sub- 

 tropical, and in the lower strata were found placental 

 mammals, but few marsupials ; in the middle beds 

 remains of the mastodon, rhinoceros, anthropomorphous 

 apes, sloths, and ant-eaters ; and in the upper layers 

 antelopes and gazelles; but no mammalian species in 

 any Meiocene deposit has continued to present times 

 all having become extinct. When we arrive at the 

 Pleiocene age we have quite a different state of things ; 

 the Atlantic and North Seas gradually united together, 

 thus separating Europe from Faroes, Iceland, Green- 

 land, and North America ; and on the east of Britain 

 the North Sea slowly descended as far as the present 

 mouth of the Thames, thus separating Britain from 

 Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands ; while the two 

 Southern seas disappeared altogether, leaving a huge 

 continent, the borders of which stretched from the 



