Large numbers of new genera and species made their appear- 

 ance, some of tliem no doubt across the North Sea Plain, but no 

 mammahan remains have been found here, though on some parts 

 of the continent they are abundant. The kind of mammalian life 

 then prevalent will be seen from the next slide ; the whole of the 

 species are extnict. And Ave are without any remains of Man. 

 According to Professor Boyd Dawkins we have no right to expect 

 them. It will be seen how improbable, nay, how impossible it is 

 that Man, the highest and most specialized of all created forms-, 

 should have had a place in the Miocene world. The evolution of 

 the animal kingdom recorded in the rocks had at this time advanced 

 as far as, but no farther than, the Quadrumana. Although this 

 reasoning has been controverted by Jukes Brown, I find that Mr. 

 Evans, in his recent address to the Geological section of the 

 British Association this year, expresses this same opinion of the 

 Tertiary period generally, and founds it on the same reasoning. It 

 is only right however to mention that the existence of Miocene 

 Man is believed in by some good authorities. 



So far we have no signs of the existence of our country as an 

 island. But now a depression set in towards the east, and 

 continued into and through Pliocene times. The land coDuection 

 with Greenland was considerably narrowed but not broken through, 

 unless perhaps in the latter part of the period. It appears almost 

 certain that the extreme south-west of England sank, and that 

 Cornwall became a small archipelago, for early Pliocene deposits 

 have been found at St. Erth. It is noticed that no northern forms 

 have been found in these beds — a fact which seems to show there 

 was no communication between the Arctic and the Atlantic. The 

 south part of the North Sea district was elevated as shown on the 

 map, while all the other part became so depressed that free 

 communication was opened with the Arctic Ocean, thus enabling 

 species of northern shell-fish to find their way south. There was 

 still connection on the south with Europe, the English Channel 

 forming the valley of a large river flowing to the west and receiving 

 as tributaries the streams from France on the left bank and from 

 southern England on the right. The Chalk Eange was continuous 

 across from Dover, and perhaps also from the Isle of Wight. 



The best known Pliocene deposits of England are the Cra()s of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, belonging to the later portions of the period. 

 The contents of the Norwich Crag tell us there must have been a 

 large estuary formed by a river coming from the west or northwest. 

 From the nature of the pebbles brouglit down it appears to have 

 been the Trent, which at that time flowed through the oolitic and 

 chalk ridges of Lincolnshire, and was one of a group of rivers 

 which helped to form the gap in the chalk now known as The 

 Wash. 



