38 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



which has actually moulded itself upon the impression of the foot- 

 prints left behind ; and then again by another deposit of the same 

 nature as the first, which can only have been deposited from the 

 sea.* Therefore the ground of which we speak, must first of all 

 have been lifted above the water, that terrestrial animals could 

 have walked upon it ; it must then have sunk down again beneath 

 the sea to receive the sedimentary deposits it reveals, and lastly, 

 must have been uplifted again to attain the position in which we 

 see it at the present day. 



These phenomena which are revealed to us by the study of the 

 formations of bygone ages, are therefore intimately connected with 

 those oscillatory motions of the soil which we observe now-a-days 

 on the sea-coasts in many parts of the world, and to which we have 

 already had occasion to allude. 



We will close our short expose by a glance at the Flora of the 

 Tertiary periods, to which our attention has been recently called 

 by the appearance of two admirable worksf by the distinguished 

 Professor Goeppert, of Breslau. In these works the learned author 

 does not confine himself to the description of the fossil plants 

 found in the tertiary beds of Schlossnitz and those of the Island of 

 Java only ; he moreover compares those with the whole known Flora 

 of the tertiary formations in general, of which the difi'erent plants 

 already amount to two thousand species. — This is also the fii'st 

 time that the fossil flora of tropical regions, situated far from 

 Europe, have been compared with the tertiary flora of our own 

 latitudes. 



The principal families of which representatives have been found 

 by Professor Goeppert in the Schlossnitz strata are as follows : — 

 Corylacese, of which there are twenty-eight species ; Calicacse, nine- 

 teen; BetulacesD, eighteen ; Ulmacese, eleven ; Pinacese, six; Papil- 

 lionacese, six ; Aceracese, seven ; Rosacefe, four ; Juglandaceee, three ; 

 Combretacese, two ; &c. — Professor Agassiz once remarked, if we 

 are not mistaken, that no representatives of the family of Rosacese 

 had ever been found fossil ; it would appear from his statements 



* This is rendered evident by the remains of marine shells, &c, 



t Die Tertiere Mora von Schlossnitz in 4to Leipzig 1855 j and Die Tertiere Flora 

 auf der Insel Java, in 4to Elberfeld, 1857. 



