REPTILES ABUNDANT. 61 



system, as far as has been observed in England. Yet there is 

 a great change in the materials of the rocks of the two forma- 

 tions, showing that, while the bottoms of the seas of the one 

 period had been chiefly arenaceous, those of the other were 

 chiefly clayey and limy. And there is an equal difference 

 between the two periods in respect of both botany and 

 zoology. While the Permian and Triassic systems, with the 

 single exception of the Muschelkalk, show comparatively 

 scanty traces of life, those in the lias and oolite are extremely 

 abundant, particularly in the department of animals, and 

 more particularly still of sea mollusca. The distinguishing 

 characters of the zoology appear to be uniform over a great 

 space. " In the equivalent deposits in the Himalayan Moun- 

 tains, at Fernando Po, in the region north of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and in the Run of Cutch, and other parts of 

 Hindostan, fossils have been discovered, which, as far as 

 English naturalists who have seen them can determine, 

 are undistinguishable from certain oolite and lias fossils of 

 Europe. ( 33 ) 



The dry land of this age presented cycadese, " a beautiful 

 class of plants between the palms and conifers, having a 

 tall, straight trunk, terminating in a magnificent crown of 

 foliage." ( 36 ) There were tree ferns, but in smaller pro- 

 portion than in former ages ; also equisetaceae, lilia, and 

 coniferse. The vegetation was generally analogous to that of 

 the Cape of Good Hope and Australia, which seems to argue 

 a climate between the tropical and temperate. It was, how- 

 ever, sufficiently luxuriant, in some instances, to produce thin 

 seams of coal, for there are such in the oolite formation of 

 both Yorkshire and Sutherland. The sea, as for ages before, 

 contained algae, of which, however, only a few species have 

 been preserved to our day. 



The lower marine animals present themselves in great 

 abundance, and in some interesting varieties of form. Corals, 

 absent in the lias, reappear in the oolite in quantity sufficient, 

 at some places, as we have seen, to constitute entire strata. 

 The crinoids are also numerous, and amongst these are new 

 genera showing an advance of organization from those of 



