1871.] HAMSAY PREIRIASSIC RED ROCKS. 253 



1. The Cambrian epocli was probably inland and partly fresh 

 water. 



2. The Old Red Sandstone, the Carboniferous series (in great part), 

 the Permian rocks and Trias (chiefly),were all formed in inland waters 

 during one long continental epoch. This was by partial submergence 

 brought to an end during the Liassic and Oolitic epochs, when the 

 highlands of Britain formed parts of groups of islands along with other 

 European palaeozoic rocks. At the same time true continental land 

 was never far off ; for even in the deposits of the Inferior and Great 

 Oolites in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire there is evidence of land and 

 rivers, which land, growing in extent,at length formed by its drainage 

 the great continental river of the Purbeck and Wealden series, as 

 shown by the estuarine and freshwater deposits of England and other 

 parts of Europe. The Dlnosauria of this continent had their allies 

 in older deposits of Permian and Triassic age. The great geogra- 

 phical areas were the same. 



3. A larger submergence closed this terrestrial epoch ; and in our 

 northern European areas the sea attained great width and depth 

 during the deposition of theChaUc, and all continental continuity of the 

 old region was entirely broken up. 



4. By subsequent elevation of the land above the sea, the fluvio- 

 marine Eocene strata of Western Europe were formed, including in 

 the term fluvio-marine freshwater beds of the whole series together 

 with the Ijondon Clay and other formations, all of which were depo- 

 sited not far from a river-mouth, or at least from shore. "With this 

 latter continent there came in a terrestrial fauna almost entirely 

 new, and wonderfully different from that which preceded it. From 

 that day to this, most of Europe has been essentially a continent, and 

 its terrestrial fauna, in a large sense, of modern type. 



If, according to ordinary methods (recognized if not absolutely 

 true), we were to classify the Jcnown old terrestrial faunas (as di- 

 stinguished from marine) of the greater part of North America, 

 Europe, Asia, and probably of Africa, a palaeozoic epoch would 

 extend from the Old-Eed-Sandstone at least to Purbeck and 

 "Wealden times, and a Neozoic epoch at least from the beginning of 

 the Eocene period down to the present day, the Upper Cretaceous 

 times remaining unclassified ; while the marine epochs would be 

 tolerably correctly, but provisionally, divided also into two, — one, 

 palaeozoic, embracing the formations from Laurentian (or at least 

 Silurian) to the close of the Permian times ; and all besides, down to 

 the present day, would form one great Neozoic or later series. The 

 terrestrial and the marine series at their edges overlap each other. 

 In this sense, as regards marine strata, the terms Palaeozoic and 

 Neozoic were first used by Professor Edward Forbes ; and the rejec- 

 tion of the three terms Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and Cainozoic, as applied 

 to terrestrial faunas, may be inferred from the remarks in Professor 

 Huxley's paper on Dicynodon. The great life-gaps between the two 

 terrestrial series may some day be filled up by the discovery of the 

 traces of old continents containing fossilized modifications of forms 

 that accompanied the lapse of time. The generic marine gradations 



VOL. XXVII. PART I. T 



