320 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



faintest trace of a connection therewith. In place of Deer, 

 Rhinoceroses, Horses, and Pigs, we have, even in the highest 

 beds of the lower Tertiaries, Ungulate Mammals of strange and 

 unknown types, all of which belong to genera long since 

 extinct, and differ widely in the structure of their low-crowned 

 cheek-teeth from all modern Mammals, although some appear 

 to have approximated in external form to the Tapirs and others 

 to the Pigs. Elephants and Mastodons were entirely unknown, 

 and the place of Monkeys was filled by primitive Lemur-like 

 creatures. All the indications afforded by the Flora and the 

 Molluscan Flora of the Oligocene and Eocene beds point to 

 the conclusion that during those epochs Britain enjoyed a 

 tropical or sub-tropical climate ; and, in some respects, its 

 Fauna may be compared to that of Madagascar at the present 

 day, although, of course, the genera of the Mammals, and in 

 many cases even the families, were different. Indeed, of the 

 land Mammals inhabiting Oligocene and Eocene England, 

 only two groups can be referred to genera that still exist, one 

 of these being now relegated to the New World. 



Lest the reader should begin to think that the whole of the 

 strata whose Fauna we have to consider in this part of our 

 subject belong to nearly the same geological period, we hasten 

 to point out the various groups into which they are divided, 

 preparatory to the consideration of their Fauna. The highest 

 of the Oligocene beds in Britain are those forming the steep 

 clay cliffs on the western side of the Isle of Wight, in the 

 neighbourhood of Yarmouth, and termed the Hempsted beds, 

 from a village of that name which is situated upon them. 

 These belong to the middle portion of the Oligocene period, 

 and have a Fauna similar to that of certain beds at Ronzon, 

 near Puy-en-Velay, in the Haute Loire. Next in descending 

 order are the Bembridge beds of the Hampshire basin, whose 

 Fauna corresponds with that of the gypsum beds on which 



