Mineralogy and Geology. 111 
mon inhabitants of our streams, the Chare, flourished in the rivulets of 
that marvellous region 
Portland: the accumulation of fossil firs and pines exposed on the 
Southern shore of the Isle of Wight; and the coalfield of Hanover, 
which entirely consists of the carbonized foliage, trunks, and branches, 
of coniferous trees, drifted from the country of the ]guanodon. 
The facts thus rapidly noticed proved that during the deposition of 
the Wealden, Oolitic, and Cretaceous strata, there existed an extensive 
Island or Continent, diversified by hills and valleys, and traversed by 
Streams and rivers teeming with fishes, crustaceans, and mollusca, 
Thus it appears, according to the present state of our knowledge, that 
the classes Mammalia and Aves, which constitute the essential features 
of the terrestrial zoology of most countries, were represented through a 
Period of incalculable duration solely by two genera of very diminu- 
lve mammals, and a few birds; while the air, the land, and the 
: Swarmed with peculiar reptilian forms, fitted for aérial, terres- 
inal, and aquatic existence. : 
‘ Admitting to the fullest extent the effect of causes that may be sup- 
Secondary deposits, the immense preponderance of the reptile tribes is 
still unquestionable. ome authors have attempted to account for this 
a 
tries 0 
: M. 
ty existed with the Iguanodon,—and the fact that insects and mollusca, 
m €s, and plants, which now inhabit regions abounding in birds, 
and Mammalia, flourished during the * Age of Reptiles,”— demonstrate 
that the physical conditions of the earth, and the constitution of the at- 
wisbhete, and of the waters, differed in no essential respect from those 
Now prevail, and that the laws which govern the organic and in- 
n 
this discourse to an extent far beyond what has since taken place, ap- 
tone 0 be indisputable, nor can any satisfactory solution of the pro- 
&m be offered from. the data hither, obtained. Future discoveries 
