As the number of the fossil species and genera from the western and eastern coasts is considerable, it will be interesting to consider the probable nature of the climate under which they lived.We will first take the case of Navidad, in latitude 34 degrees, where thirty-one species were collected, and which, as we shall presently see, must have inhabited shallow water, and therefore will necessarily well exhibit the effects of temperature.Referring to Table 4 we find that the existing species of the genera Cassis, Pyrula, Pleurotoma, Terebra, and Sigaretus, which are generally (though by no means invariably) characteristic of warmer latitudes, do not at the present day range nearly so far south on this line of coast as the fossil species formerly did.Including Coquimbo, we have Perna in the same predicament.The first impression from this fact is, that the climate must formerly have been warmer than it now is; but we must be very cautious in admitting this, for Cardium, Bulla, and Fusus (and, if we include Coquimbo, Anomia and Artemis) likewise formerly ranged farther south than they now do; and as these genera are far from being characteristic of hot climates, their former greater southern range may well have been owing to causes quite distinct from climate: Voluta, again, though generally so tropical a genus, is at present confined on the west coast to colder or more southern latitudes than it was during the tertiary period.The Trochus collaris, moreover, and, as we have just seen according to Mr.Sowerby, two or three other species, formerly ranged from Navidad as far south as Santa Cruz in latitude 50 degrees.If, instead of comparing the fossils of Navidad, as we have hitherto done, with the shells now living on the west coast of South America, we compare them with those found in other parts of the world, under nearly similar latitudes; for instance, in the southern parts of the Mediterranean or of Australia, there is no evidence that the sea off Navidad was formerly hotter than what might have been expected from its latitude, even if it was somewhat warmer than it now is when cooled by the great southern polar current.Several of the most tropical genera have no representative fossils at Navidad; and there are only single species of Cassis, Pyrula, and Sigaretus, two of Pleurotoma and two of Terebra, but none of these species are of conspicuous size.In Patagonia, there is even still less evidence in the character of the fossils, of the climate having been formerly warmer.(It may be worth while to mention that the shells living at the present day on this eastern side of South America, in latitude 40 degrees, have perhaps a more tropical character than those in corresponding latitudes on the shores of Europe:
for at Bahia Blanca and S.Blas, there are two fine species of Voluta and four of Oliva.) As from the various reasons already assigned, there can be little doubt that the formations of Patagonia and at least of Navidad and Coquimbo in Chile, are the equivalents of an ancient stage in the tertiary formations of the northern hemisphere, the conclusion that the climate of the southern seas at this period was not hotter than what might have been expected from the latitude of each place, appears to me highly important;for we must believe, in accordance with the views of Mr.Lyell, that the causes which gave to the older tertiary productions of the quite temperate zones of Europe a tropical character, WERE OF A LOCAL CHARACTER AND DID NOTAFFECT THE ENTIRE GLOBE.On the other hand, I have endeavoured to show, in the "Geological Transactions," that, at a much later period, Europe and North and South America were nearly contemporaneously subjected to ice-action, and consequently to a colder, or at least more equable, climate than that now characteristic of the same latitudes.
ON THE ABSENCE OF EXTENSIVE MODERN CONCHIFEROUS DEPOSITS IN SOUTH AMERICA;AND ON THE CONTEMPORANEOUSNESS OF THE OLDER TERTIARY DEPOSITS AT DISTANTPOINTS BEING DUE TO CONTEMPORANEOUS MOVEMENTS OF SUBSIDENCE.
