Ch. XVI] fossils of the LONDON CLAY. 217 



steamboats. These plants are allied to the cocoa-nut tribe on the one 

 side, and on the other to the Pandanus, or screw-pine. The frnits ol 

 other palms besides those of the cocoa-nut tribe are also met with in the 

 clay of Sheppey ; also three species of Anona, or custard-apple ; and 

 cucurbitaceous fruits (of the gourd and melon family) are in considera- 

 ble abundance. Fruits of various species of Acacia are in profusion, and 

 these, although less decidedly tropical, imply a warm climate. 



The contiguity of land may be inferred not only from these vegetable 

 productions, but also from the teeth and bones of crocodiles and turtles, 

 since these creatures, as Dr. Conybeare has remarked, must have resorted 

 to some shore to lay their eggs. Of turtles there were numerous specie?. 

 referred to extinct genera. These are, for the most part, not equal in size 

 to the largest living tropical turtles. A sea-snake, which must have been 

 13 feet long, of the genus Falceo2Jhis before mentioned (p. 214), has also 

 been described by Professor Owen from Sheppey, of a different species 

 from that of Bracklesham. A true crocodile, also, Crococlilus toliapicus, 

 and another saurian more nearly allied to the gavial, accompany the 

 above fossils ; also the relics of several birds and quadrupeds. One ot 

 these last belongs to the new genus Hyracotherium of Owen, allied to the 

 Hyrax, Hog, and Chseropotamus ; another is a Lophiodon ; a third, a 

 pachyderm called Corijphodon eoccenus by Owen, larger than any existing 

 tapir. All these animals seem to have inhabited the banks of the great 

 river which floated down the Sheppey fruits. They imply the existence of 

 a mammiferous fauna antecedent to the period when numraulites flour- 

 ished in Europe and Asia, and therefore before the Alps, Pyrenees, and 

 other mountain-chains now forming the backbones of great continents, 

 were raised from the deep ; nay, even before a part of the constituent 

 rocky masses now entering into the central ridges of these chains had 

 been deposited in the sea. 



The marine shells of the London clay confirm the inference derivable 

 from the plants and reptiles in favor of a high temperature. Thus many 

 species of Conus and Valuta occur, a large Cyprcea^ C. oviformis, a very 

 large Rostellaria (fig. 223), a species of Cancellaria^ six species oi Nau- 

 tilus (fig. 225), besides other cephalopoda of extinct genera, one of the 

 most remarkable of which is the Beloseptio:^ (fig. 226). Among many 

 characteristic bivah^e shells are Lecla amygdaloides (fig. 227) and Axinus 

 angulatus (fig. 228), and among the Radiata a star-fish called Astropec- 

 ten (fig. 229). 



These fossils are accompanied by a sword-fish [Tetrapterus prhcus^ 

 Agassiz), about 8 feet long, and a saw-fish [Pristis bisulcatus, Ag.), about 

 10 feet in length ; genera now foreign to the British seas. On the 

 Avhole, no less than 50 species of fish have been described by M. 

 Agassiz from these beds in Sheppey, and they indicate, in his opinion, a 

 warm climate. 



* For description of Eocene Cephalopoda, see Monograph by F. E. Edwards, 

 Palaeontograph. Soc. 1849. 



