1897.] The Inferior Boundary of the Quaternary Era. 107 
strained to refer them to separate periods in his geologic clas- 
sification. Yet the climate and natural history conditions of 
the rest of the earth’s surface may have remained unchanged, 
so that his divisions, based on the changes in Florida, would 
be of merely local significance. 
But if the uplift, instead of being confined to the peninsula 
of Florida, were of continental extent, its effects would be far 
reaching and very important. With the extension of the land 
area, there would be an increase of the distinctly interior por- 
tion of the continent, whose climate, slightly different from 
that of the coasts, would have an appreciable effect on the 
flora and land fauna of the present coastal regions. The eleva- 
tion of the continent, also, would lower the general tempera- 
ture throughout its extent, driving southward the present 
north border of various temperate species of trees and other 
plants, and so changing the facies of the flora in any given 
locality. Such elevation of a very extensive land area, if 
thousands of feet in height, would have some effect on the 
climate of the entire earth, although just what this effect would 
be would depend largely upon the situation of the uplifted 
land with relation to the prevailing winds and ocean currents. 
But the most important manner in which the uplift would 
effect the natural history of the continent would be through 
radical changes of its soil and physical features. The low-ly- 
ing, somewhat swampy plain, with its deep soil resulting from 
a long accumulation of the products of secular decay, would 
give place to a sharply dissected plateau, the steep hill sides 
and narrow crests of its individual ridges covered but thinly 
with a stony soil. While the effect upon the flora and fauna 
of any one change in conditions would probably be compara- 
tively slight, the combined effect of all must be considerable, 
even if the uplift be but little. Indeed, it seems evident that 
not even the least change in the relation between land and sea 
can occur without somehow effecting the climate, and through 
it the life characters of the region in movement. 
In an article entitled “The Relation between Baseleveling 
and Organic Eyolution,! J. B. Woodworth discusses “ the effect, 
* American Geologist, Vol. XIV, No. 4, October, 1894. 
