58 



entirely confirm the views given above. One difficulty 

 Desor had in parallelizing the Laurentiau beds of the 

 North with those of the South containing the remains of 

 land animals, was the apparent absence of the remains 

 of land animals in the clays of the North. But since then 

 teeth of the bison have been found at Gardiner, Maine, 

 in the upper part of the clays. It may also result from 

 farther investigation that the phosphate beds were laid 

 down at a later period than we have supposed ; at the time 

 when the great mammals found in the cave at Phrenixville 

 by Mr. Wheatley flourished, perhaps during the earlier 

 portion of the river terrace period when the mammoth 

 and mastodon lived both in the northern and southern 

 states. 



Thus, the parallelism between the Quaternary beds 

 North and South would seem to be even more exact than 

 Desor could with his data make it twenty years ago. The 

 climate gradually grew warmer from Labrador to Florida ; 

 the Gulf Stream did not apparently change its bed during 

 the Quaternary period ; the oscillations of level of the 

 coast of South Carolina were slight and involved but a 

 few feet, where in Canada and Labrador the rise and fall 

 involved several Irandreds ; and the denudation effected 

 in the North by laud ice, was caused in the South by 

 oceanic currents, waves and atmospheric agencies. There 

 are apparently no facts to show that while the glaciers 

 lined the coast of New England, the waters of South 

 Carolina were not as warm, if not warmer, than at the 

 present day, from the effects of the Gulf Stream. 



Mr JAMES H. EMERTON exhibited the following species 

 of plants in flower which he had collected this afternoon 

 in South Salem and Swampscott, and made some appro- 

 priate remarks in relation to them. 



