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CHAPTER X. 



EAELY HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



It is still a favourite notion, constantly repeated 

 under some form or other, that old faunas were com- 

 paratively poor ; that as the world has aged life has 

 multiplied ; and that Nature now, in all her forms, 

 whether of animals or of plants, is richer, fuller, 

 and more varied than of old. The Natural History of 

 the European seas affords no support for such belief. 

 The fauna preserved in the palaeozoic limestones and 

 slates of south Devon, is infinitely more varied and 

 numerous than that now found on our south- 

 western coasts. The assemblage contained in the 

 Crag deposits of Suffolk far exceeds the present 

 fauna of the German Ocean. The Testacea of the 

 Nummulitic period, such as may be met with from 

 the south of England to the Mediterranean, pro- 

 bably exceed five-fold those which will characterize 

 the present period for the same area. Of all the 

 marine faunas which have succeeded one another in 

 European latitudes, that of the present time is 

 numerically the poorest. Under the same genera 

 specific forms are fewer, whilst orders and classes 



