352 J. GWYI^ JEFFKETS ON THE OCCUREENCE OF MAEINE ' '. 



from the level of the sea-shore to Moel Tryfan in Carnarvon- 

 shire, at heights of between 1170 aind 1350 feet. The last-named 

 deposit is a raised beach ; I will give a list of the fossils at the 

 end of this x^aper. On the Wicklow Hills, in Ireland, the Rev. 

 MaxweU Close is said to have found marine shells at the height of 

 1300 feet. In Scandinavia, the range of level is from 50 fathoms 

 (300 feet) to 540 feet s.m. =840 feet. In Eussia, Murchison and 

 Yerneuil noticed sea-shells of arctic species 250 English miles from 

 the White Sea, and 130 feet above its level; and Count von 

 Helmersen has lately stated that such shells occur in Siberia, nearly 

 500 miles southwards. In Canada, the late Sir William Logan has 

 recorded a raised sea-beach with shells on Montreal Mountain at 

 460 feet above the Atlantic. In the arctic regions fossiliferous beds 

 are widely distributed, and attain an elevation of from 50 to 1000 

 feet. The extent of subsidence there is not known. In addition 

 to the above-cited testimony of Professor Seguenza, Professor Judd 

 tells me that in the isle of Ischia he found shells of apparently 

 Mediterranean species at a height of 2000 feet *. 



With respect to* the cnimatal nature of these sheUs, I am not 

 aware that any arctic or peculiarly northern species have been 

 noticed in the raised beaches which fringe the western and southern 

 coasts of England (e. g. Barnstaple Bay, and Hope's Nose near 

 Torquay), nor in the north or west of France ; but they especially' 

 characterize all the other countries and places above mentioned, as 

 well as Sicily, where such northern forms as Cyprina islcmdiia, 

 Mya truncata, Saxicava norvegica, and Buccinum undatum are not 

 uncommon as Tertiary fossils, although now absent from the 

 Mediterranean. How is this to be accounted for? The specu- 

 lative and unscientific notion that species " retreat " in consequence 

 of altered conditions, wiU not help us to answer this question. 



Another question arises as to th^ permanence or long duration of 

 the' oceanic basins, a subject which has been lately treated by my 

 friend and colleague Dr. Carpenter, in his very interesting Lecture at 

 the Eoyal Institution of Great Britain, and has since been discussed in 

 ' Nature.' As it has been shown tha.t Malletia excisa and many other 

 existing species of MoUusca which at present are known to inhabit 

 great depths only, are found in a fossil state at considerable heights 

 above the present level of the sea, so as to show an elevation of 

 from 11,000 to 12,000 feet, or nearly 2000 fathoms, such elevation 

 having taken place at a very late and comparatively recent stage of 

 the Tertiary or Post-Tertiary epoch, and considering that no trace 

 of any organism belonging to even the Miocene formation has been 

 detected in any of the deep-sea explorations (although the rate at 

 which the slight submarine deposit, far from land, is formed by the 

 debris of surface-animals and plants, is known to be exceedingly 

 slow), can we rightly assign to the present oceans that geologically 

 remote antiquity which is claimed for them ? Dr. Carpenter sa3'-s, 

 " The deep-sea soundings of the ' Challenger ' have brought out 



* See also LyeU's ' Elements of Geology ' and * Principles of Geology ' as to 

 the height of Newer Pliocene beds in Sicily. 



