g6 TROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



of Gondwana-land, as it is termed by Suess *, a great continent 

 including Australia, India, and South Africa, seems more in accord- 

 ance with facts than Mr. Wallace's view that " fragmentary evidence 

 derived from such remote periods " is " utterly inconclusive "t. 

 Por if each flora could be transported across the sea, why are no 

 European Carboniferous plants found in the contemporaneous de- 

 posits of Gondwana-land and vice versa. Carboniferous plants of 

 the European type are not confined to the northern hemisphere 

 even, for they are found on the Zambesi in Africa and in Brazil. 

 The accounts of their occurrence in Africa south of the Zambesi 

 are as yet too indefinite for any clear idea of their relations to be 

 formed, and it remains to be seen whether the Lepidodendron said 

 to be found in IS'atal and the Transvaal is not Lower Carboniferous 

 or Devonian, as in Australia. 



There is some evidence, though less complete than that from 

 Carboniferous strata, of similar floras in Jurassic beds in Australia, 

 India, South Africa, and also in South America. 



The evidence of the Carboniferous flora i:^, however, open to one 

 objection. It may be urged that the distinction between the 

 Northern and Southern floras is too great to be due solely to isola- 

 tion, and that some other agents, such as climate, must be the 

 cause of the diff'erence. Very possibly the difference may be due to 

 both isolation and climate ; for in the lower part of the series in 

 India, Africa, and Australia, the best-marked proofs, yet recorded, 

 of glacial action in ancient rocks have been noticed, and, despite 

 some curious occurrences of boulders in coal-seams, no such unequi- 

 vocal evidence of glacial conditions has been noticed in the Carbo- 

 niferous of the Northern hemisphere. But additional facts in favour 

 of land-connexion between India and South Africa are met with 

 in Cretaceous times, and in this case the evidence is derived from 

 marine, not from fluviatile deposits. 



. The Echinoderm-fauna of the Cenomaniau beds found around Bag, 

 near the Nerbudda, in Western India, comprises 8 species J, only 2 

 of which are not found in beds of the same age in Europe. The 

 number of species found in the Cenomanian Utatur group of South 

 India of the same age is 10 §, 4 of which, all species of Cidaris, are 

 referred to European species, but three of the four are doubtful. The 



* Das Antlitz cler Erde, Bd. i. p. 768. t Island Life, p. 398, note. 



+ Duncan, Q. J. Gc. S. xHii. p. 154. 



§ Stoliczka, ' Paloeontologia Indica,' eer. viii. vol. iv. p. (125). See also 

 Manual Geol. India, pp. 290, 297, &c. 



