348 W. H. HUDLESTON^ ESQ.^ F.E.S._, ON THE ORIGIN 



brother, Dr. S. P. Woodward, was the first to call attention to 

 the shells brought home by Captain Speke, and he also called 

 attention to the fact of the marine forms which have been observed 

 in the Caspian, and his conclusion, generally, was that many of 

 these old sheets of water which were now fresh, or either partially 

 fresh, or wholly fresh water, had at one time been connected with 

 the sea ; and certain animals, like the Caspian cockle and shells 

 that Captain Speke brought home from Lake Tanganyika, I think 

 show the same remarkable marine affinities and might have been 

 survivors from animals that had been left behind when the sheet 

 of inland water was isolated from the rest of the main ocean. 



I think Mr. Hudleston has taken a very wise view in his 

 remarks. He says, " I don't care whether they are Jurassic or not." 

 The main contention he held too was that they were originally 

 descendants of marine forms. Their ancestors might have been 

 merely Tertiary. They might have been, as Mr. Hudleston 

 suggests, possibly derived from Cretaceous beds of North Africa ; 

 but still the instances of marine molluscan fauna remain, and the 

 fact of those little Medusae being met with is of great interest. 

 ■ What probably led Mr. Hudleston to see the difficulty of 

 accepting the view of the marine origin of these forms was that 

 these rift valleys, to use Dr. Gregory's term, are so much more 

 recent. They are not of that great antiquity that the lakes of 

 Europe, Asia and Arabia, and that part of the world, which 

 indicate marine origin, claim. Lake Baikal and those other lakes 

 and the old Caspian, are evidently old seas that have been cut off 

 from the ocean at very remote times. There are lakes in Sweden 

 which were cut off from the sea and contain seals at the present 

 day, showing that they were at one time part of the Baltic, but are 

 now inland and separated entirely from the sea. 



Mr. Hudleston's is a very interesting paper and shows an 

 immense amount of research to bring together this collection of 

 facts in a convenient form for study. I also congratulate Mr. 

 Moore on having obtained another supporter in Mr. Hudleston. 



Rev. G. F. Whidborne, F.G.S. — I can only say that I have 

 listened with extreme interest to the paper, which has taught me a 

 great deal, and as the time has fled I think I will say no more. 



The Secretary (Professor Edward Hull, LL.D.). — I would 

 like to be allowed to move a very cordial vote of thanks on 



