THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



259 



If such was the character of the early Atlantic 

 fauna of the Loire channel, and its favouring con- 

 ditions, it may reasonably be asked whether any 

 assemblages with like southern characters can be 

 traced in other localities still further north, along 

 our European coasts. Our own coasts offer a good 

 example. 



There are some old sea-beds high up our English 

 Channel, near Selsey, on the Sussex coast, which, 

 therefore, lie rather more than two hundred miles 

 north of the Faluns of Touraine, and which, from 

 geological position, are undoubtedly referable to a 

 somewhat distant period. The Testacea of the 

 Selsey and Touraine beds do not admit of strict 

 comparison, for not only are the numbers very 

 unequal, but the conditions indicated by the Sussex 

 species are local and exceptional — such as muddy 

 marginal lagoons contiguous to land. If these 

 beds are of old date relatively to the present At- 

 lantic or Channel fauna, it is quite sufficient for 

 our present purpose if their contents show a devia- 

 tion from the existing fauna, of the same kind as 

 that indicated by the Touraine Testacea. 



As yet we have only thirty -five species from the 

 Selsey beds ; of all these the relations are decidedly 

 southern and western. Some forms, such as Tapes 

 pallustra, all met with of large size, and another 

 species, Tapes aurea, put on the aspect which they 

 present at present in warmer Lusitanian and Medi- 



