"504 Canadian Record of Science. 



less abundant at the present day, are of extreme antiquity, or to such 

 as were abundant in past epochs, but are now represented by few forms. 

 The most remarkable instance of this persistence of type is the 

 brachiopod — Lingula, which ranges from the Cambrian — the base of 

 the Palaeozoic, to the present day. Other examples are the crinoids 

 or stone lilies, the lung-fish above cited, and the water chervotain of 

 Africa. Our world is fast being impoverished of many forms of 

 animal life. Though this is due largely to the demon of destructive - 

 ness, inherent in human nature, other causes are at work. The 

 introduction of other animals by human agency has led in some cases 

 to final extinction. Occasionally it is a catastrophe of nature. As an 

 instance, maybe cited the submergence of the breeding place of the 

 Great Auk. The Af riean elephant, the walrus of the polar regions and 

 the New Zealand tuatera are in urgent need of protection if they are 

 to be preserved. Animals often endeavor to protect themselves from 

 their foes by simulating some object — animate or inanimate— that the 

 foe may be deceived thereby. This is especially true of the order of 

 Insecta. 



" As old as the plains" would, in many instances, be a more truthful 

 simile than the current saying, " as old as the hills," The higher a 

 mountain range, the shorter we know is the time it has been subjected 

 to the denuding agencies of nature, and, therefore, the younger it is. 

 Nummulites are exceedingly interesting to those who study the 

 genesis and growth of mountain ranges, for the reason that they occur 

 in large numbers only in the Eocene period. Therefore when we find 

 limestones, rich in nummulites, as is the case in the Alps, Pyrennees, 

 'Carpathians, Caucasus and Himalayas, we must conclude that elevation 

 in these cases must have taken place at a time subsequent to the 

 Eocene period. 



Three great lessons, Mr. Lydekker informs us, may also be learned 

 from the chalk. First, that there is a certain Chalk or Crelaceous 

 •style or Facico. Though the rock of this age be chalk, limestone, 

 sandstone or slate, the Facico, or style of its fossils, will be the same, 

 with certain limitations the whole world over. Secondly, from the 

 researches carried on during the voyage of the " Challenger," the old 

 view that chalk was an abyssal deposit was entirely dissipated. All 

 the stratified rocks, therefore, with which we are acquainted have been 

 laid down in comparatively shallow water. This leads to the general 

 acceptance of the grand doctrine of the permanence of continents and 

 water basins. The study of the European chalk, in yhe third place, 

 has proved the former existence of two great seas, in which Cretaceous 

 rocks were laid down, the northern one being a " mare clausum," cut 

 •off from the Atlantic, and in which was deposited the white chalk, 

 ■while the southern one, in which the great limestones of Southern 

 .Europe were laid down, connected the Atlantic and Indian oceans. It 



