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VIII] and Cornwall is both deep and wide, though this may possibly be due to tidal scour.

The animals and plants yet known from this lowest submerged forest are disappointingly few; but the prevalence of the oak shows that the climate was mild, and that we have no clear indication of conditions approaching to those of the Glacial Epoch. In fact, in all the submerged forests the fauna and flora seem poor and monotonous, consisting essentially of living British species, with a few mammals since locally exterminated by man, and all known to have a wide range both in climate and latitude.

This in itself, however, is a point gained in the study of the origin of our flora; for though the deficiency is no doubt largely due to insufficient collecting, I am convinced that it is a true characteristic of this period of transition. Much time has been spent in examining and collecting the fossils of these submerged forests, and various friends have also worked at them; but everywhere we seem to get the same result, and many abandon the study because there is so little to show for it. The deposits certainly contain a much poorer fauna and flora than either the Pleistocene or the recent alluvial strata.

If we consider the Britain of the submerged forests as having lately emerged from a time when the climate was ungenial, we should naturally expect to find among the first incomers after the