490 Geological Society. 
France a sub-tropical character. I am also informed by Mr. Lyell, 
that out of 400 marine and freshwater species, from the Eocene strata 
of the London and Hampshire basins, Mr. G. Sowerby was scarcely 
able to identify two per cent. with living shells. It is satisfactory 
therefore to observe that the test of age derived from the relative 
approach to the recent Fauna is in perfect accordance with the in- 
dependent evidence drawn from superposition. We ascertain for 
example by superposition that the freshwater strata of the mud cliffs 
of East Norfolk rest on Norwich crag, and are the newest forma- 
tion of all. They are then followed in the descending series by, 1st, 
the Norwich, 2ndly, the Red, and 3rdly, the Coralline Crag, beneath 
which is the London Clay. The same order of sequence is indi- 
cated by the organic remains considered independently, and simply 
with reference to the degree of their correspondence with the ex- 
isting Fauna. . 
It has been known for many years, that near Bridlington, in York- 
shire, sand and clay containing marine tertiary shells had been ex- 
posed on the coast. From an examination of the shells collected 
there by Mr. Bean, Mr. Lyell finds the deposit to agree in age with 
the Norwich Crag. 
I cannot conclude these remarks without observing, that some 
part of the confusion and apparent inconsistency of the opinions of 
different conchologists, respecting the age of the Crag, must have 
arisen from the intermixture of fossils derived equally from 
the Norfolk and Suffolk beds, or from strata, some of which now 
turn out to be referable to the Older Pliocene, others to the Miocene 
eriod. 
: From an examination of some fossil shells, identical with recent 
species collected by Capt. Bayfield from the most modern deposit 
near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and near Quebec, Mr. Lyell infers, 
that the climate of Canada was colder than now during the era im- 
mediately antecedent to our own times. The shells, which were de- 
termined by Dr. Beck, differ in great part from those now living 
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, agree more nearly with arctic genera 
and species, and resemble those which Mr. Lyell collected at Udde- 
valla, in Sweden; whereas, if the living shells most abundant in the 
Swedish and Carnadian seas are contrasted, they differ almost en- 
tirely. From notes sent by Capt. Bayfield, it appears that at 
different depths in the stratified sand and clay containing the 
fossil shells, near Quebec, insulated boulders are numerous, which, 
it is presumed, have been brought down at distant intervals by 
drift ice, and have dropped to the bottom of the sea as the ice 
melted. 
While Mr. Lyell, by the aid of Dr. Beck’s determination of fos- 
sils, had adopted these views respecting the climate of Canada, Mr. 
James Smith, of Jordan Hill, had been led by independent observa- 
tions to a similar conclusion respecting the climate of Scotland 
during the Newer Pliocene era, arguing from the arctic character of 
the Testacea found in the raised beds of the valley of the Clyde, and 
‘other localities. In the first of two papers communicated by this 
