236 



MARINE PROVINCES. 



longed to what may be termed the Boreal and 

 Celtic zones of the oolitic seas. 



In like manner, taking lower forms, the northern 

 range of JSferincea, and other Mollusca, can be indi- 

 cated for the oolitic and cretaceons seas, as closely 

 as can that of Cymba or Solarium in our own Euro- 

 pean seas now. 



The great Indian Ocean contains an assemblage 

 of forms under every class, which gives to its fauna 

 a distinctive facies ; so, also, does the North Pacific : 

 the North Atlantic fauna is distinct from either. 

 These great divisions of the ocean admit of minor 

 ones, or, as they have been here called, " Provinces." 

 Those proposed by Ed. Forbes for the Atlantic coasts 

 of Europe are the Arctic, Boreal, Celtic, and Lu- 

 sitanian. It must not be supposed that in forming 

 these he limited them by definite lines and boun- 

 daries, for no such hard lines exist. Change is 

 throughout progressive ; but, when sections of the 

 European coasts are taken at wide intervals — if, for 

 instance, the fauna of our Channel Islands is com- 

 pared with that of the Lofoden group — the dis- 

 tinctiveness is seen to be very great. Whether the 

 intermediate section of the Atlantic, between these 

 two localities, forms one province or more, is a 

 question which every naturalist will determine for 

 himself, according to the amount and kind of dis- 

 tinctiveness which, in his opinion, a province should 

 have. Such divisions, at best, are merely conven- 



