Guppy—Tertiaries of Trinidad. 261 
stance connected with it should be carefully observed and recorded, 
that researches into the more ancient formations may be conducted 
with greater success:’* and, in addition, it is probable that im- 
portant inferences with respect to the climate of the earth in former 
epochs may flow from comparisons such as those attempted in the 
present paper. 
I shall conclude with a few remarks in connection with the possi- 
bility of a colder climate having prevailed in the West Indies during 
the Newer Pliocene period. It is known that species of Crypto- 
gamic Plants found in the Arctic regions have been discovered on 
mountains in the torrid zone. Plants indigenous to Lapland have 
been observed on the Peak of Teneriffe, and on the Blue Mountains 
inJamaica. Similar facts have been noticed relative to the Andes.t 
It remains to be seen how far these phenomena are attributable to 
the former prevalence of colder climates over large portions of the 
earth’s surface. Itis possible that the plants referred to may have 
first appeared within the tropics during a period when the climate 
was colder than at present; and that when the conditions of tempe- 
rature became altered, these plants receded from the lowlands, ulti- 
mately occupying only the higher summits of the mountains. There 
is, however, nothing to show that the climate of the torrid zone was 
ever such that ice could have been present in quantity. 
The idea of those alterations in the climate of the earth which are 
admitted on all hands to have taken place having been widely spread, 
is not now brought forward for the first time, and hypotheses in ex- 
planation have been suggested by various observers. ‘There may even 
have been more than one period of comparative coldness, and the phe- 
nomena may have recurred according to definite and fixed laws.{ 
Again, the climates of the globe might have been such, that while 
the southern hemisphere was enjoying more than an average share | 
of warmth, the climate of the northern portions of the globe was in 
a corresponding degree colder; and vice versa. But to do more 
than merely to allude to what has been brought forward on these 
subjects, is beyond the scope of a paper like the present. 
In the above paper I have confined myself to a very few remarks 
on those species of the Mollusca from the Matura beds which are 
probably new. Ihave done so, because I do not yet feel justified in 
publishing new specific names. ‘There are no means of reference, 
either to Museums or to published works, in this island. Our 
Public Library scarcely possesses any but the most elementary works 
on Natural Science.§ It is, however, but fair to state that the 
Governors of the Colony have not always been indifferent to the 
claims of science; and it may be hoped that the time is not far dis- 
tant when some efforts will be made for the institution of a local 
Museum and Scientific Library. 
Port or Spain, TRInmAD: August 1864. 
* Smith, Post-Tertiary Geology, p. 5. 
+ Humboldt, Travels (Bohn’s ed. 1852), vol. i. p. 115. 
{ Page, Past and Present Life of the Globe, p. 190. 
§ See Criiger in Geological Report on Trinidad, p. 176. 
