892 T HE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. VIII. 



that then, as now, the land was diversified by hills and 

 dales, mountains and glens, volcanic peaks, elevated regions 

 of perpetual snow, and vast areas of eternal ice, — sterile 

 and sandy deserts, and fertile alluvial plains, irrigated by 

 streams and rivers ; the only important discrepancy being 

 the high climatorial temperature that prevailed over exten- 

 sive areas at certain epochs, and the corresponding modi- 

 fications in the organic kingdoms.* But even the most 

 remarkable anomalies in the terrestrial faunas and floras of 

 the palaeozoic ages, are not without a parallel at the present 

 time. 



Thus, New Zealand with its peculiar flora, -j~ charac- 

 terized by the predominance of ferns, club-mosses, &c. to 

 the almost entire exclusion of the graminaceous tribes, — 

 and its mammalian fauna, consisting of but two very small 

 species of quadrupeds (ante, p. 729), — and the bones of 

 recently extinct struthious birds, — presents a general 

 correspondence with the lands of the Carboniferous and 

 Triassic epochs.^ Australia and Van Diemen's Land pos- 



* See Appendix E. f See Medals of Creation, vol. i. p. 202. 



J In a general retrospective view of this kind, the minor subdivisions 

 or formations must, of course, he disregarded ; and while on this subject, 

 I would direct attention to the following remarks of the late Presi- 

 dent of the Geological Society, Leonard Horner, Esq., in his Anni- 

 versary Address, for 1847 : — 



" By whatever names we designate geological periods, there appears 

 to exist no clearly denned boundaries between them in reference to the 

 whole earth : such a marked line may be seen in particular localities, 

 but every year's experience, and our more intimate acquaintance with 

 the phenomena exhibited in different countries, and with the distri- 

 bution, structure, and habits of animals and vegetables, teach us that 

 there is a blending, a gradual and insensible passage from the lowest 

 to the highest sedimentary strata, particularly in respect of fossil 

 remains. The terms we employ to designate formations, can only be 

 considered as expressing the general predominance of certain charac- 

 ters, to be used provisionally, as a convenient mode of classifying the 

 facts we collect together, whilst that knowledge is accumulating whicb, 



