8 



been stiii'tly contiMn|iomncou8. Now it in olix i<)i;8 fliul tlie rcindtrr luifl retroiU'il 

 jimt ns far to the Nortli as tlie lion 1ms rtlreate.l to tlie ''onlli, nnd if we ftlnnilit 

 infer I'lom the luriner lli;il lin- cliniati- lias Wvw niMcr tlian it now is, we bIioiiIiI 

 1« oltligeil liy the pR-since of tlie lion on tlic oilier lmn<l to n(»!>nmo tliat it innot 

 have lieen waiiner than it actually is. 'I'liu wlmle wt of fact« inferring to Ihii» 

 tlienic is folly explained if we keep in mind that any f<|ieeies of plants or aninial« 

 may have huen rtstricted to a smaller area hy the flru'^'^'le of life to whi<h it w;m 

 sulijected. Hjieeies hcttcr adaplotl to n cold climate jicrsihtetl tliere Imt were 

 restrictal from the southern part of their area, whilst the reverse took place wilh 

 those siRTies which were better adapted to ft warm climate. Without ndmiltinj» 

 this fact, wc should be indeed at a perfect loss how to explain the majority of 

 facta cünnectcd with the study of tertiary floras and faunas, and it obli'^'8 

 us much more than it is the custom among palcontoloj;ists, to restrict our 

 conclusions and statements on the temperature f)f the dilTerent continent« and 

 oceans. Indeed the area over which the majority of species are spreml is far 

 larger and includes a far greater variety of climates tlian is gcnemlly admitted ; 

 and the range of latitude, which a given siiocies may have, or may have had in 

 tlic course of geologieal ages, is very often undoubtedly a much larger one. 



Making an application of these views to the matter in question, we may say that 

 the climate of the latest tertiary times may have 1)een a little wanncf— or n very 

 little colder— l}ian it is now, but that it may just as well have been exactly the same. 



Still less may wc form any conclusions on the tein|ieralure of Jair.m during 

 the diluvial ei-a, whose fauna we know but imperfi-ctly, and wliose flora to n 

 necessity was tlic same as that of both the youngest tertiary nge and the present 

 time, and wliicli does not exhibit those glacial phaenoinena which give such a 

 high interest to the study of the quaternary formations of England, Bcandinavia, 

 Germany and Switzerland. During this period, which so strongly divides the 

 genial climate of tlie miocene era of Europe froin the less warm Imt also fertile 

 present era of the same part of the world, we find in southern latitudes, such a« 

 that of Tokio and it.s environs, nothing but a deposit of detritus indicating k 

 smaller extension of the land than we have now, and no proofs of a climate 

 differing from that of the present age, the only reasons for admitting a lowering 

 of the tcinjierature being derived from the observations made in higher latitudes. 



In fact tlie absence of the glacial phionomenon is exactly wliat might have 

 naturally boefi cx{)ected. The latitude of Tokio, similar to that of Oibmllar or 

 Damstscus, together with the absence of Alpine mf>iintains, would be scari-ely in 

 accordance with the presence of inland-ice, such as has lieen jiroved to have 

 existed in the atiove-named Euroj)eau districts. The alisence of any traces of 

 it relieves us from pointing out such heavy changes in the configuration of the 

 land and its surface as could be reconciled with the glacial phfrnomenon. It is 

 true, indeed, that the alwvc mentioned Oerman geologist, Fraas, is of opinion 

 that exactly in the same latitude«, and even a little father to the south, vie. in 

 the southern prolongation of the Jordan-valley beyond the DeA<l Sea and on tlic 



