Vice-President' s Address. 183 



evidence of sucli modifications will y(^t be recognised, if 

 indeed the phenomena referred to by Neumayr be not a case 

 in point. It may be noted, further, that while, according to 

 many botanists, the plants of the Paleozoic periods bespeak not 

 only uniform climatic conditions but the absence of marked 

 seasonal changes, those of late ^lesozoic times are indicative 

 of less uniformity. The Cretaceous conifers, for example, 

 show regular rings of growth, and betoken the existence of 

 seasons, which were much less marked, however, than is 

 now the case. 



The geographical changes of Mesozoic times were notable 

 in many respects. The dominant features of Europe, 

 already foreshadowed in early Palaeozoic times, had become 

 more clearly outlined before the close of the Cretaceous 

 period. Notwithstanding many movements of depression, 

 the chief land-areas continued to show themselves in the 

 north and north-west. The highest grounds were the Urals, 

 and the uplands of Scandinavia and Britain. In Middle 

 Europe the Pyrenees and the Alps were as yet incon- 

 siderable heisrhts, the loftiest lands in that region beino- 

 those of the Harz, the Eiesengebirge, and other tracts of 

 Archaean and Palaeozoic rocks. The lower parts of England 

 and the great lowland plains of Central Europe were some- 

 times submerged in the waters of a wide, shallow sea, but 

 ever and anon elevation ensued, new lands appeared, and 

 these waters became divided into a series of large inland 

 seas and lakes. In the south, a deep Mediterranean sea 

 would appear to have persisted all through the Mesozoic 

 era — a sea of considerably greater extent, however, than 

 the present. 



While in Europe the dominant features of the continental 

 plateau run approximately west and east, in North America 

 they follow nearly the opposite direction. In early Mesozoic 

 times, vast tracts of dry land extended across the northern 

 and eastern sections of the latter area. Over the liocky 

 Mountain region, low lands and saline lakes appear to have 

 stretched, while further west the area of the Great Plateau 

 and the Pacific slope were covered by the sea. Towards the 

 end of the Mesozoic era, the land in the far west became 



