446 Scientific Intelligence. 
plex which is condensed and rather boldly personified by the term Natu- 
-_ palactib on is no vega sueipesheriden by — naturalists than is the 
pra cretaceous : oking then at “ examples of avail forms 
of Mammalia now living with some of the tertiary quadrupeds once deni- 
zens of the same regions, or regions formerly connected by land,” or where, 
“without this close affin nity, a “considerable eres is found between 
speciai tribes now living and “ppt ag the same region,” as in a 
part of America “among the Edent aye though et quite confined 
to that) region are more plentiful Ay, ‘than elsewhere, and are successors 
of fossil raves also found almost exclusively in that country ;” noting also 
that the sarah mammais of Australia had marsupial predecessors, our 
author continues: 
“The peculiarity indeed is of far earlier origin; for it occurs in the 
eocene deposits of the basin of Paris, in the Jacustrine deposits over the 
upper oolite at Stonesfield, and probably in the Trias of Wurtemberg. 
In respect of the Stonesfield fossils, this is not the only evidence presented 
by that curious deposit of similarity of mezozoic life in the north and 
cenozoic life in the antipodal region of the south. It extends to other 
groups, both of the land and sea, and almost justifies the notion of some 
affinity even in the systems of life. For just as at Stonesfield, so in Aus- 
tratia, small insectivorous marsupial mammals are associated with Cyca- 
daceous plants and Ferns; as now in the seas surrounding Australia, Tere- 
bratula and Rhynchonella, _Trigonia and Cucullza, consort with Turtles 
and the Cestraciont Sharks, near reefs of coral, and rivers tenanted by 
Gavialian Crocodiles, so at Stonesfield in the she time, similar animals 
in similar combination. 
“ What does this teach us? Are we looking upon two partially simi- 
Jar, but really separate creations suited to partially similar conditions in 
very different periods of time? Or is the life-system of the modern Aus- 
tralian land and sea tray derived in some of its components by descent 
with modification from the older periods of the world, and preserved to 
this our day, notwithstanding displacement over half the circumference 
ot the globe, and all the vicissitudes of an immensity of time?” (p. 171, 
2). 
_ The author proceeds to answer these questions in the following passa- 
ges in which his volume culminates 
