354 Miocene. 



namons, figs, dryandra, prickly vines, nyssa, and other 

 plants, and on the lake water-lilies expanded their 

 leaves and flowers. 



The present Europe, partly then a continent, was, 

 in Miocene times, the theatre of wide-spread volcanic 

 eruptions in Central France, Germany, and that part of 

 the British Islands now known as the Inner Hebrides, 

 and also in the north-east of Ireland. In that region 

 they play a much more important part in connec- 

 tion with the physical geography of our country 

 than they do at Bovey Tracey. In the land of Antrim, 

 from thence through the Isles of Mull, Rum, Eigg, 

 Cana, Muck, and Skye, a vast broken belt of Miocene 

 volcanic rocks forms great part of the Inner Hebrides ; 

 and far beyond Britain, in the Faroe Islands, Iceland, 

 Spitzbergen, and Franz Joseph Land, the same volcanic 

 series is found, fragments perhaps of one large con- 

 tinuous territory, or, if not, at all events of a series 

 of large islands, of which the Faroes make one of the 

 fragments. 



In Scotland these volcanic rocks consist chiefly of 

 Basalts, Dolerites, Felstones, and Amygdaloids, inter- 

 bedded with agglomerates of lapilli, large blocks, and 

 volcanic bombs, such as are piled on the sides of almost 

 all volcanoes, and which often go by the name of 

 volcanic ashes. These occur, associated with beds of 

 clay or soil, and streaks of lignite. Some of the clays 

 contain leaves of plants. The late Professor Edward 

 Forbes determined their age, and later observations 

 made by Professor Heer confirm his accuracy. 1 



1 For an elaborate memoir on these volcanic rocks, see Mr. Judd 

 ' On the Ancient Volcanoes of the Highlands, &c.,' Journal of the 

 Geological Society,' 1874, vdl. xxx., p. 220. The whole subject of the 

 growth and decay of these volcanoes is there treated of in a manner 

 never before attempted. 



