98 
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 groimd 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 eoepose 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 amoimt to two thousand species. — ^This is also the first 
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 foimd 
by Professor Goeppert in the Schlossnitz strata are as follows : — 
Corylaceee, of which there are twenty-eight species ; Calicacse, nine- 
teen ; Betulaceas, eighteen ; Ulmacese, eleven ; Pinacese, six ; Papil- 
lionaceee, six ; Aceracese, seven ; Rosacese, four ; Juglandaceee, three ; 
Combretacese, two ; &c. — Professor Agassiz once remarked, if we 
are not mistaken, that no representatives of the family of Rosaceae 
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 Flora von Schlossnitz in 4to Leipzig 1855 ; and Die Tertiere Flora 
auf der lusel JarSj in 4:to Elbeifeld, 1857. 
