Mantell on Fossil Remains from New Zealand. 41 



The flora too contains more than a hundred plants unknown else- 

 where. There is not a fauna or flora in any of the ancient geo- 

 logical periods that presents greater anomalies. Mr. Darwin em- 

 phatically remarks, that "when we consider the well-beaten 

 paths made by the thousands of huge tortoises with which these 

 islands are traversed, — the many turtles, — the great warrens of 

 the terrestrial Amblyrhynchi, and the groups of marine species 

 basking on the coast-rocks of every island of this Archipelago, 

 we must admit that there is no other quarter of the world where 

 the Order of Reptiles replaces the herbivorous mammalia in so 

 extraordinary a manner. The geologist on hearing this will prob- 

 ably refer back his mind to those Secondary Epochs, when sau- 

 nans, some herbivorous, some carnivorous, and of colossal dimen- 

 sions, swarmed on the lands and in the seas. It is therefore 

 worthy his especial observation that this Archipelago, instead of 

 possessing a humid climate and a rank vegetation, must be con- 

 sidered as extremely arid, and for an equatorial climate remarka- 

 bly temperate."* 



I have endeavored to express in the annexed table the organic 

 gelations between the countries above mentioned and their geo- 

 logical analogues. 



MODERN EPOCH. SECONDARY EPOCHS. 



Predominsn^ nf Z p? anA T r Countries of the Carboniferous and Tri- 



gantic liirds. Mammalia absent. re™™- 



r Australia. The lands whence the Stonesfield and 



a* deaceous Plants. Marsupial Carboniferous oolitic strata were de- 

 -Mammalia. rived. 



The Galapagos Islands. The country of the Iguanodon, and the 



Predominance of Reptiles. Herbiv- regions that supplied the detritus that 



orous, terrestrial and marine Sau- formed the fluvio-marine secondary 



nans and Chelonians. strata. 



ed 



In th 





»/ 



e( z as merely disclosing an exaggerated effect of the organic law 



? cre ation, which imparted to the fauna of the Galapagos Islands 



" s reptilian character. In Australia, and in the Oolitic lands, the 



tammalian fauna assumed the marsupial type. In New Zealand, 



and m the Triassic countries, the ornithic vertebrata predom- 

 inated. 



y the ancient philosophers, ere the discoveries of Columbus 



' — d, had found in 



malsand plants 



« s are presented by New Zealand, Australia, and the Galapagos 

 stands, how impossible would it have been for them, by any 



had 



pened 



» a 



s 



Journal of a Voyage roand the World,' chap, xvii 



• 



KC0 « D »*■«•, Vol. VII, No. 19.— Jan., 184i>. 6 



