510 ; REPORT—1883. 
tions of the climate and of the fauna and flora have gone part passw with the 
elevation of the land. This is exemplified in the variety of the elephantine and 
cervine remains which were successively entombed in the great Anglo-Belgian 
basin. After that deposit the land was evidently upheaved, so that on the west 
the estuary was raised high and dry without the river, and on the east there is 
the remnant of the mighty Rhine without the estuary, 
A severance has taken place, caused by this elevatory process, between the 
elephantine and cervine remains on either side of the Alpine ranges. This may be 
seen in Germany, Italy, and other countries on the east, and in the Thames valley, 
the Forest-bed in England, and in several districts in France and elsewhere on the 
west. Both mammals and molluscs had an extensive range before the mountains 
were raised and intercommunication was cut off. 
The result of this upheaval was the introduction of the so-called Glacial 
epoch, when the greater part of the mammals succumbed to the cold, and an ice- 
sheet by land and glaciers by sea spread the temperature of the Ice Age far and wide, 
The reality of this scene and its cause are shown by the gradual introduction 
of the present milder temperature, which has succeeded on the wearing down of 
the level of perpetual snow and the retreat of glaciers. This may be observed by 
every traveller in Switzerland, Savoy, Italy, and Greece; and we appear to have 
returned to the same temperature as prevailed during the Forest-bed period after 
having experienced here the severity of subarctic regions. 
Tn Central North America the elevation of the land, 2,000 feet, has sufficed to 
change the course of the Gulf Stream. By this the current of warm water is 
diverted to its present course, and we now enjoy the benefits which once spread 
their genial influence in the direction of Melville Island. This change suggests the 
best solution of that extraordinary phenomenon the growth of coal-plants in so 
northerly a latitude. 
6. Preliminary Note on the further discovery of Vertebrate Footprints in the 
Penrith Sandstone. By Guorce Varry Smiru. 
For some time past the author had been endeavouring to find footprints in the 
Penrith sandstone, knowing that impressions of the same nature as those met with 
in the equivalent strata of Dumfries had been previously found at Brownrige in 
Plumpton, about five miles to the north of Penrith, and that similar impressions 
had also been noticed by the late Mr. Binney and by Prof. Harkness on the flagey 
beds near Penrith, but that those impressions were not so distinct as at Brownrigg. 
Last May he was fortunate enough to meet with some impressions in a quarry 
which had been opened out when the Settle and Carlisle branch of the Midland 
Railway was in course of construction. This quarry is situated on the slope of 
the hill north of the highway from Penrith to Alston, and about three and a half 
miles east from Penrith. The rock consists wholly of strongly false-bedded red 
sandstone, similar in character to that so largely employed for building purposes 
in and around the town of Penrith. 
The geological position of the sandstone was shown approximately in the diagram 
which was exhibited. It is important to notice that the Penrith sandstone occurs 
beneath the magnesian limestone, the latter being found in the bank of the river 
Eden between Throstle Hall and Little Salkeld, to the north-east of the quarry, 
as well as in Hilton Beck, near Appieby. Nearly all the footprints hitherto found 
in the New Red have been obtained from the so-called Trias, and it is of great 
interest to find vestiges of a similar nature occurring in rocks clearly older than the 
magnesian limestone. 
Facsimile casts of several impressions, showing the peculiar characteristics of 
each, were exhibited at the meeting, together with sketches of the stones upon 
which the impressions occur, serving to show the direction of the tracks. 
The first impression (cast No. 1) was found loose on the top of the bed where the 
workmen had been quarrying. From the impressions subsequently found i sitw 
it would appear to be the cast, or top stone. Subsequently the author found im- 
pressions on the bed marked A in the water-colour sketch of the quarry. 
