82 



only in shady parts of great humidity. It is in the south tem- 

 perate zone of America that the ferns approach to the mag- 

 nitude of those found in the European coal formation. Trees 

 grow in this region to a very large size, and the shrubs and 

 smaller plants become particularly luxuriant and productive. 

 Much alluvial matter, saturated with calcareous and siliceous 

 solutions, is carried down the valleys, blended with decomposed 

 vegetation, and forming immense deposits. Springs of bitumen 

 are also very abundant, and form very extensive beds. 



Were persons a little more acquainted with this prolific re- 

 gion, and possessed more information respecting the great 

 deposits of calcareous, siliceous, bitumen beds, &c. which are 

 now forming and consolidating in a short period, they would 

 not be quite so extravagant in their calculations on the time 

 necessary to form the coal formation *. Small beds of lignites 

 are formed within the tropics in less than one hundred years in 

 favourable situations, and more especially in the neighbourhood 

 of bituminous springs. Owing to the great warmth, rich and soft 

 nature of the soil, tender plants flourish through the long winters 

 of Patagonia. The humidity of the air near the Straits of Ma- 

 gellan is very great, yet there is great warmth in the sea and in 

 the soil. 



There is no well-authenticated instance of the remains of a 

 saurian animal having been found in a member of the carboni- 

 ferous series of England ; nor have the bones of any terrestrial 

 mammalia been discovered f. Their absence has been regarded 

 by some as corroborating the theory of the non-existence of the 

 higher orders of animals in the earlier ages, but the circumstance 

 is owing to the geographical position of the zone ; the general 

 character of this division of our globe being a profusion of 

 vegetation, and land almost destitute of quadrupeds. " Ker- 

 guelen^s land, which is of no inconsiderable size, placed in lat. 

 49° 20' south, and also the groups of fertile islands in the Pacific 

 Ocean, contain no quadrupeds, except such as appear to have 

 been conveyed there by man. Even the islands of New Zea- 



* It has been calculated that the coal series of Newcastle, with its accom- 

 panying strata, must have required for its production a period of at least 

 200,000 years. 



f Traces of reptiles have been found in other countries. 



