232 



■CONCLUDING- EEMAEKS ON CLIMATE. 



[Ch. XL 



tlie fossil types of this great class of vertebrata, indicate 

 a warm climate and an absence of frost between tlie 40th. 

 parallel of latitude and the pole, a large ichthyosaurus havinc 

 been found in lat. 77° 16, and the general character of the 

 mollusca and corals, as well as of the plants, being in perfect 



from 



T 



ep- 



tiles. If we then carry back our retrospect to the primary or 



assembla 



warm 



humid 



climate 

 v from 



of latitude to within a few degrees of the pole, or to north- 

 ern regions where at present the severe winter's frost, and 

 the almost universal covering of snow lasting for many 

 months, preclude the existence of a luxuriant vegetation. 

 In rocks older than the carboniferous, the evidence of plants, 

 insects, and fish fails us, but the invertebrate fauna has such 

 a generic resemblance to that of the later primary and the 

 older secondary periods, as to force us to believe that the 

 climate of the temperate and arctic regions was very ana- 

 logous to that which generally prevailed in those subsequent 

 epochs. 



But although the temperature was generally higher than it 

 is now, we found a marked exception in the Glacial period 

 intervening between Pliocene and modern times ; while some 

 indications seem also to have been discovered of intercalated 

 glacial periods of older date, especially in the Miocene, 

 Eocene, and Permian eras, but no decided changes in the 

 character of the organic remains have yet been shown to 

 accompany the inorganic proofs of supposed glacial action of 

 those remoter periods. 





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