74 JOURNAL AND PR0CP:EDINGS. 



as alleged, it was found in undisturbed layers or beds, and most 

 probably was conveyed by an iceberg. A tree undermined on the 

 bank of a flooded river frequently has a mass of rock entangled in 

 the roots. I saw, when a boy, one carried a considerable distance 

 in an almost upright position on the Munster Blackwater. Such, 

 perhaps, was the means of conveyance in this case, and not ice. 

 When we reflect at the time the chalk was deposited palms, myrtles, 

 magnolias, sequiras flourished, that corals and tropical or sub-tropical 

 shells abounded in the Enghsh seas, it is difficult to imagine the 

 existence of floating ice. We have undoubted evidence that a real 

 tropical climate prevailed a little later in " Eocene time." Unless we 

 recognize the importance of a paper (to which I have already refer- 

 red), by Prof. Matthews, New Brunswick, it appears impossible to 

 account for well-developed Cones, Nautidi, Volutes, Olives, Mitras 

 —habitants of warm seas — occurring in Tertiary beds containing an 

 undoubted Fauna, now characteristic of a colder climate. I consid- 

 ered formerly that the minute cowrie of Ireland was merely a degen- 

 erated descendant, dwarfed by a change in climate, but I 

 subsequently noticed a member in the tropics, which, corresponding 

 in size and general appearance, I looked upon as a mere variety of 

 the living Irish shell. I have seen fossilized Moluscs which were 

 obtained from London clay, England's Eocene. They presented a 

 blanched appearance, not unlike what we call dead shells, but yet 

 retaining a considerable portion of the original color. If we exam- 

 ine the Flora of the Eocene rocks, and the Strata, estimated at not 

 less than 12,000 feet, we find plants (remarks Geekie) having living 

 representatives in the hotter part of India, Africa, Australia and 

 America. Now, although we may find mingled with the above the 

 Chestnuts, Willows, Elms and Laurels, characteristic of more tem- 

 perate climates, yet it does not follow that they flourished precisely 

 at a similar level above the sea. Many of the remains possibly were 

 conveyed from high hills to the plains below by streams or river 

 floods. Near Newcastle, Jamaica (up in the Blue Mountains), I 

 have often seen, after heavy tropical rains, the swollen brooks 

 carrying down to the lowlands trees, ferns, etc., torn from the banks. 

 These vegetable remains would undoubtedly be mixed with a Flora 

 below, foreign to the hills. May not this have occurred also in 

 ormer times ? It seems reasonable *to think so, and would it not 



