546 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Heraispliere outvying the present inhabitants of those parts of the 

 earth ? This interesting problem will have to be solved by future 

 geologists. 



Appendix : on the probable existence oe an ancient 

 Southern Continent. 



The many similar forms of life, either fossil or recent, that are 

 found scattered over various parts of different countries now so 

 widely separated by the Indian and Pacific Oceans, seem to indicate 

 that in very remote periods they must have been more intimately 

 connected with each other than they are at present. 



To those who believe that all the species of the same genus, and 

 that in all jjrobability all genera of the same family, have a common 

 origin, it will appear almost self-evident that it must have been so. 

 Thus remains of Dicynodont Reptiles and Labyrinthodont Amphibia 

 are found both in India and South Africa, " affording," as Professor 

 Huxley stated in a paper upon those from the former country, " new 

 and interesting links with the fossil fauna of the Karoo beds of 

 South Africa." In another paper he said, " There are two other forms 

 of Labyrinthodonts which exhibit many similarities to the Micropholis. 

 These are theBrachijojjs laticeps of Prof. Owen, from Central India, and 

 a new form allied to the^r«c7i^ops,but distinct from it, from Australia, 

 the Botliriceps australis." 



It is not only in the fauna of the Dicynodon formation, but in the 

 flora also that connecting links are found ; thus a Olossopteris that 

 has frequently been found in the Karoo and others from India 

 and Australia are so nearly allied to each other that a high 

 authority has stated that he " can find no specific distinction." 

 With regard to this fiora Mr. Tate, in his paper " On some Secondary 

 Fossils from South Africa," says that it " jDresents -close analogy 

 with that of the coal formation of Eastern Australia, and the plant- 

 bearing beds of Burdwan and Nagpur in India. The charac- 

 teristic plant in each of these deposits is a Glossopteris ; and it seems 

 that the Indian, Australian, and South-African plants are specifically 

 identical." 



Amongst the fossil Mollusca of the succeeding Uitenhage forma- 

 tion w^e find many other such connecting genera. Thus the Exo~ 

 gyra, Trigonia, Cuculhea, Pinna, and Crassatella of the Sundays and 

 Zwartkops strata find their representatives in Mauritius, India, and 

 Australia, the Crassatella extending as far as New Zealand. With 

 regard to the plant-bearing beds of this series, Mr. Tate writes*, 

 — " Of the four species of Pecopteris, one is not satisfactorily distinct 

 from P. lohata of India ; and two others are closely allied to P. in- 

 clica, also from the Jurassic i^laiit-beds of the Rajmahal Hills. 



Asplenites lohata is common to these Indian and African 



strata ; and though, with one exception, they are distinct, yet, on 

 the whole, the Jurassic plants of South Africa recall those of Scar- 

 borough and the Eajmahal Hills." 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. i^. 148. 



