574  Correspondence—Rev. O. Fisher—Rev. W. Downes. 
existed where oceans are now spread out; and clear and open. 
oceans may have existed where our continents now stand.” (Quoted 
from 3rd ed. 1861, p. 335; 1st ed. published in 1859.) 
This and similar statements in the same chapter were then 
regarded as pure assumptions on Mr. Darwin's part, made to evade 
a difficulty which the author himself admitted “may be truly urged 
as a valid argument against the views here entertained.” The 
inference in the first half of the quotation given above will probably 
now be accepted by most geologists; that in the second half may 
not yet gain so general a belief. The “ Record” of Paleozoic life 
has been carried far back since the publication of the “Origin of 
Species,” but the difficulty remains much as it did, and can probably 
only be explained in the oamner stated by Mr. Darwin. 
A TRVEY Orrice, Lonpon, 
ee ea 1880. W. Torrey. 
POST-GLACIAL. 
Srr,—In a letter in your last Number under the above heading, 
Mr. Dalton referred to the mention of a burnt stone, or what ap- 
peared like one, found by me at Lexden brickpit, and argues from 
it that Paleolithic Man, the contemporary of these great beasts, was, 
as man is now, a “cooking animal.” But this burnt stone, if such 
it was, was not found in the same stratum with the pachyderms, but 
in brick-earth overlying it. I believe I made this sufficiently clear 
in my paper upon the deposit (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1863, p. 596). 
I am rather disposed to think that this brick-earth is considerably 
more recent than the peat, in and beneath which the bones of ele- 
phants and rhinoceroses were so abundant. O. FisHEr. 
Hartron, Campripcer, 6 Nov. 
“FOSSILS OTHERWISE THAN ON BEDDING PLANES.” 
Str,—Since the appearance of my letter in your September 
Number, I have been confirmed in my view by several other observers, 
and I would especially mention two who have kindly furnished me 
with definite instances in point. Mr. Ussher lately sent me a 
specimen from the Lower Lias near Newark, showing Ammonites 
planorbis occurring nearly vertically to the bedding; and by this 
morning’s post (Oct. 26th) I have received from the same locality, 
through the kindness of Mr. Dalton, a drawing of two specimens of 
Ammonites semicostatus traversing the bedding, the one at an angle 
of about 45°, the other at an angle of about 30°. 
I have already suggested what appear to me certain vere cause 
for the occurrence of fossils in such positions. I will only now add 
that if conditions should hereafter supervene which should alter the 
character of these Liassic beds, obliterating the bedding and super- 
inducing cleavage, rendering them in fact mineralogically similar to 
the Silurian slates before referred to, the only fossils visible in them 
would as a rule be those which happened to coincide with the 
cleavage planes. W. Downes, 
KENTISBEARE, CoLLUMPTON, 
October 26th, 1880. 
