410 A. Champernoivne — Age of the Ashburfon Limestone. 



the surface of sucli enormous regions of the earth would in itself 

 lead us to believe, that those creatures had really been long inhabit- 

 ants of such countries, living and dying there for ages, ichUe their 

 final destruction may have resulted from aqueous debacles dependent 

 on oscillations of the land, the eUvation of ridges, and the formation of 

 much local detritus" (Russia and the Ural Mountains, vol. i. p. 495). 

 Speaking of the herds of Mammoths that must have lived in the 

 Northern Urals, the same w^riters say : " Such might we add, have 

 been the position and condition of some of these creatures at the 

 periods when, as we have imagined, the highest ridges of the 

 Ural were thrown up, followed by the rupture of many lakes, and 

 the consequent inundation of large tracts of the flat country, previously 

 frequented by these great herbivorous animals" (id. 498). 



This completes our survey of the Siberian evidence, and I take it 

 that not only is it everywhere consistent with the conclusion of 

 this paper, namely, that the Mammoth was finally extinguished by 

 a sudden catastrophe, involving a great diluvial movement over all 

 Northern Asia, and accompanied by an equally sudden and violent 

 change of climate, but that it is consistent with no other conclusion. 

 We are now in a position to follow up the problem as it presents 

 itself in Europe, where, as we said, many subsidiary difficulties 

 make the discussion of the main question a complicated one. It is 

 clear that these difficulties must be frankly faced if our theory is to 

 remain good, and I propose to examine them in another paper, 

 where I hope to show that, in Europe as in Siberia, the evidence 

 points overwhelmingly to the same conclusion. 



TV. — The Ashburton Limestone : its Age and Eelations. 

 By A. Champernowne, M.A., F.G.S. 



IT has been for some time a matter of surprise to me that 

 Dr. Holl, in his exhaustive memoir " On the Rocks of S. Devon 

 and East Cornwall," — after once raising the question " whether the 

 limestones" (those of our present subject) " might or might not be 

 the same as those of Ogwell, Ipplepen, and Dartington thrown over 

 a broad anticlinal axis of the lower slates to the North-West," ' — 

 should have ceased following out that line of thought to what 

 appears to me the only possible issue, since he thoroughly recog- 

 nized the existence of uniclinal structures in parts of the district. 



It may be as well to say at once that I do not believe these 

 limestones to be on a lower horizon than those of Ogwell, Ipplepen, 

 and Dartington, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding ; 

 and I will proceed to give a summary of my reasons for holding so 

 ])ronounced an opinion, to which, let me add, I have always more 

 Or less inclined. 



That the direct evidence is, as Dr. Holl says, against it, I grant ; 

 yet not " entirely " so, for, as he himself admits, " palfeontological 

 records would not altogether discountenance it."'^ This, as far as 



1 Q.J.G.S. 1868, p. 442. ^ i,c. p. 443. 



