CHAP, ii.] BRITISH UPPEfl EOCENE MAMMALS. 31 



third very much smaller, while a fourth was remarkable 

 for its compressed and serrated canines, like those of the 

 Machairodus, or sabre-toothed lion haunting the Meio- 

 cene, Pleiocene, and Pleistocene forests of Europe. 



British Upper Eocene Mammals. 



At the close of the mid Eocene period there was 

 a general elevation of the continent, in which the 

 southern parts of Britain participated, the coast -line 

 being pushed farther to the south, and the area which 

 had been occupied by the south-eastern sea being 

 covered with the fresh waters of a river. The frequent 

 alternation of marine and fresh water deposits in the 

 Isle of Wight, in Hampshire, and in Sussex, show that 

 those districts were then constantly subject to oscilla- 

 tions of level. 



The vegetation covering the southern parts of Britain 

 is imperfectly known, but from the few fragments which 

 are preserved it was, probably, closely allied to that of 

 the mid (Fig. 4) and lower Eocene. In the Isle of 

 Wight the forests were to some extent composed of 

 palms. The mammals, however, present differences of 

 the very highest importance. Instead of the solitary 

 Lophiodon which happens to have been found in the 

 deposits of the Nummulitic sea, the remains of a varied 

 mammalian fauna have been discovered in the south 

 of England. Animals (Palceotherium) like the tapirs 

 of tropical Asia and America wandered in the forests 

 and on the banks of the rivers (Fig. 5). There were 

 also herds of Anchitheres, which have been proved by 

 the researches of Professors Marsh and Huxley * to have 



1 American Addresses, Lecture III. 



