§ 19. STONESFIELD AND WEALDEN FOSSILS. oil 



age antecedent to the most ancient eocene epoch : — a fact 

 of the highest interest to the geologist, since it carries back 

 the existence of the higher vertebrated animals to a period 

 of unfathomable antiquity. 



The mammalian remains hitherto discovered consist of 

 six specimens of portions of the lower jaw, with teeth ; 

 these all belong to very small animals, and are referable to 

 two genera. One is allied to the Wombat, a marsupial 

 animal of New South Wales (the Phascolomys) ; proving 

 that the remarkable character of the mammalian fauna of 

 Australia also prevailed in a very remote period, and that 

 it is not, as some have inferred, a new order of things. 

 The other remains indicate a small insectivorous mammal, 

 (Amphitheriuvi) having thirty-two teeth in the lower jaw ; 

 its marsupial affinities are doubtful.* 



19. Comparison of the Stonesfield and Wealden 

 Fossils. — The reader cannot fail to remark the general 

 correspondence that exists between the organic remains 

 imbedded in these fluvio-marine deposits of the Oolite and 

 those of the AYealden : the following tabular view will 

 render this analogy more obvious : — 



Strata of Tilgate Forest Stonesfield Slate. 



Drifted coniferous wood, lignite, Drifted coniferous wood. 



&c. 



Equiseta. Fucoid plants. 



Herbaceous ferns ; Sphenopteris, Herbaceous ferns : Sphenopteris, 



Lonchopteris, &c. Taeniopteris, fee. 



Cycadeae and Zamiae. Cycadeaa and Zamiae. 



Endogeniteserosa. Liliaceaa. 



Ciathraria Lyellii. Bucklandiae. 



Carpolithes; and undetermined Carpolithes, and undetermined 



seed-vessels. seed-vessels. 



• See Prof. Owen's British Fossil Mammals, for exquisite figures, 

 and an elaborate philosophical notice of the mammalian remains 

 discovered in the Stonesfield slate. 



