36 Notices of Memoirs—Dr. R. F. Scharff. 
a total absence of boreal or Arctic species. This fact led Professor 
Kendall and Mr. Bell to the conclusion that at the period during 
which these deposits were laid down—that is to say, during the latter 
part of the Pliocene period—no channel or direct communication 
existed between the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the Straits of 
Dover being closed in the south, while in the north the Tertiary 
volcanic chain formed a barrier across from the North of Scotland to 
Greenland by way of the Shetland Islands, Fares, and Iceland.? 
Mr. Reid’s contention that the St. Erth Beds are older than Messrs. 
Kendall & Bell estimated—that they are, in fact, of early Pliocene 
age—is founded chiefly on the circumstance that the percentage of 
extinct species is about the same as that of the Coralline Crag. The 
consideration of the supposed climatic conditions does not seem to me 
of any particular value; and, as he remarks, the exact age of the 
clays is still doubtful.* Even if the St. Erth Beds belong to the lower 
Pliocene, there are no grounds for the supposition that the northern 
barrier, alluded to by Messrs. Kendall & Bell, had ceased to exist in 
later Pliocene times. 
The change in the Pliocene fauna of the east coast of England, 
as we pass from the older to the newer beds, no doubt implies, as 
Mr. Harmer pointed out, an opening up of the area to the influence 
of the northern seas. But we do not possess the slightest evidence 
for the assumption that the Atlantic Ocean was similarly affected. 
Many of the facts, indeed, lead to the conclusion that the land on the 
Atlantic coasts of the British Islands stood highest in late Pliocene 
and early Pleistocene times, and that it was then that Helix hortensis 
and many other European species must have made their way to 
America. 
Glacial conditions prevailed at this time on all the high mountain 
ranges surrounding the warm Atlantic Ocean, and yet the coast region 
must have supported an abundance of animal and plant life. The 
presence of a land-bridge between Scotland and North America by 
way of Greenland, and another between England and France, would 
have excluded the Gulf Stream from the Arctic regions. Professor 
Blytt’s argument that under such conditions all the coast region, 
including Iceland and Southern Greenland, would have had a higher 
temperature than at present, while the lands beyond were probably 
colder, seems irrefutable. Yet Professor James Geikie believes that 
even the latter countries would then have had a more genial climate.° 
In my opinion it was during this epoch, in Pre-Glacial times, that 
the interchange between the fauna and flora of North-Western Europe 
and North-Eastern America was effected across the northern land- 
bridges. 
Only one other point needs to be commented upon. I have shown 
1 Pp. F. Kendall & A. Bell, ‘‘ The Rose Beds of St. Erth’’: Q.J.G.S., 1886, 
xhi, pp. 206, 207. 
2 C. Reid, Pliocene Deposits of Britain, 1890, p- 61. 
3 F. W. Harmer, ‘* Pliocene Deposits of Holland” : Q.J.G.S., 1896, lii, p. 754. 
& Abel Blytt, ‘ Theorie d. wechselnden Klimate”? : Engler’s Botanische Jahré., 
1881, ii, p. 49. 
5 James Geikie, Prehistoric Europe, 1881, p. 520. 
