from the direction of the present Atlantic, which discharged itself into the sea over the southern part of Hampshire. We may see by this that the geographical conditions of these times were altogether unlike those of the present day. In the Isle of Sheppey the London Clay contains a bed of drifted vegetable remains, associated with the jaws and bones of mammalia and reptiles, while the beds of Eocene age in Hampshire have furnished us with a rich collection of the mollusca which inhabited the sea-bottom of the period, so that we can form a vivid picture of the natural condition of England in Eocene times. All the fossil remains conspire to prove that the climate of the period of the London Clay was in these latitudes as warm as that of the present tropics. The mollusca are of similar genera to those now inhabiting tropical scas; the vegetable remains are those of palms and other trees characteristic of hot climates; while the reptilian fossils bear similar testimony; serpents, exceeding in size the largest existing Boas and Pythons, with Crocodiles, Alligators, and Turtles, animals that naturally suggest to us much warmer conditions than those of England at the present day. Here then we have another gap in the geological record of prodigious extent. Within a few feet of each other we find, first, strata, which were deposited under Arctic conditions; and secondly, others containing tropical fossils. The records of the geology of Suffolk-of the history of this part of England from the era of the Eocene to that of the Pliocene forest and crag beds,—an interval of time of which we can form no ideaare hopelessly lost. In other parts of Europe, in India, and in America, however, we have beds of intermediate age, and containing very rich stores of fossil wealth, but we should consider ourselves very unfortunate if we had to piece out the history of England during 400 or 500 years with a few fragmentary records from Hindostan and North America.

We have discussed that period in the earth's history when the arctic cold pushed its way down to our own latitudes. During this earlier epoch, when tropical heat obtained in our temperate zone, the polar climate was also less severe, so that a rich and varied flora occupied those regions which are now undergoing continuous winter. It seems probable that many of the genera exotic trees and shrubs recently introduced into this country from

of

Japan and elsewhere, some of which perhaps this beautiful garden contains, originated in polar regions, since allied forms are met with in different parts of the earth, which seem equally to have migrated from the north. To take one example-the Sequoias or Wellingtonias of California have their nearest and indeed only representatives in Eastern America and in China and Japan, while there are no such trees in Europe, although they are perfectly adapted to our climate, and are being introduced into this country with success. But they existed in circumpolar regions during these Tertiary periods of greater warmth, and seem to have migrated southwards in different directions as the Glacial period came on. To this theory, which I believe originated with the American botanist, Dr. Asa Gray, my friend, Mr. Searles V. Wood, junior, has added the bold but interesting hypothesis that it was in high latitudes that deciduous trees were first evolved-that, in fact, the habit which so many of our European trees and shrubs have of shedding their leaves during winter was originally acquired during their exposure to the long darkness of the Arctic winter.

In conclusion, I must refer to the last gap in the record with which I shall have to-day to trouble you.

The Eocene beds, the oldest of the Tertiary rocks, rest directly on the Chalk, which is of Secondary age. It seems probable, so far as marine organisms afford us a clue, that the period of time separating the Eocene beds and the Chalk is greater than that which separates the latter from our own era. The difference between the forms of animal life which existed in Eocene times and those of the present day, great as it is, bears no comparison whatever to that between those of the Chalk and the Eocene. We can trace a relationship between the mammalia of the London Clay and those of our own times; while, as I have before said, some of the mollusca, or shell-fish, are absolutely identical with those now existing. But when we pass to Secondary fossils, we find whole families that are not now represented at all. As, for example, among the reptiles, the Ichthyosaurs, the Plesiosaurs, the Mosasaurs, and those great flying dragons, the Pterodactyles. These all became extinct during this great unrepresented interval of time, except it be that the sea-serpent, for whose existence so

many sailors have vouched, and whose testimony has been endorsed by a recent essayist before this Society, be "the last of the Mohicans," handing down the tradition of these Enaliosaurian monsters to our own times. In like manner among the mollusca, we have no living representatives of the numerous Ammonites, Turrilites, Baculites, and other Cephalopoda which were characteristic fossils of the Secondary rocks. And yet these Eocene strata rest directly on the Chalk, without any transition beds whatever, and there is nothing in the whole world with which we are at present acquainted, to supply this missing link in the geological history.

There is no reason whatever to suppose that these changes from sea to land, from tropical to arctic climate, from the Palms and Cocoa-nuts, Turtles and Crocodiles of the London Clay, to the Elephants and Pines of the Forest-bed, took place suddenly. On the contrary, no scientific views have been, during recent years, more firmly established, than those of the Uniformitarian school, which teaches that these transformations, in the organic as in the inorganic world, have been brought about by the slow and gradual operation of causes similar, and probably of no greater intensity, than those with which we are ourselves familiar. As far as the inorganic world is concerned, no one hears now of the catastrophes and cataclysms which were formerly part of the regular stock-in-trade of geologists, and I think the most careless reader of scientific. literature must have observed, as to the organic world, that the discussion as to whether or not evolution is true, has altogether ceased, the only question now being in what direction it has proceeded.

IX.

SOME NOTES ON HAWKING, AS FORMERLY

PRACTISED IN NORFOLK.

BY J. E. HARTING, F.L.S., F.Z.S.

Read 24th February, 1880.

A PERUSAL of the interesting chapter upon Hawking in Norfolk, contributed by Professor Newton to the recently published second edition of Lubbock's 'Fauna of Norfolk,' has induced me to offer the following notes by way of supplement to what he has advanced, in the belief that any additional information, however fragmentary, concerning the practice of this ancient pastime in the county referred to, will be acceptable to the members of this Society.

Amongst the materials for history, private letters have always been deemed of the utmost value, and the utility of Household Books,' as affording us an insight into the manners, customs, and expenses of the periods at which they were written, must be too generally a 1mitted to require argument. It is chiefly from sources such as these that I have collected, in the course of my reading, the few notes which I have now to offer.

Towards the close of the sixteenth century there resided at Hengrave, in the county of Suffolk, a gentleman by name Kytson, whose 'Household Book,' commenced in October, 1572, and diligently kept by his steward, has, fortunately for our present purpose, been preserved to us.*

* Extracts from this Household Book' are printed in Gage's ' History and Antiquities of Hengrave,' 4to, 1822, to which work I am indebted for the items here quoted.

From the nature of the disbursements entered in these accounts, it would seem that Squire Thomas Kytson took much delight in field sports. He kept his horses and his hounds, owned a deer park and a rabbit warren (which yielded two hundred coneys per quarter), hunted the buck, shot the doe, went wild-fowling, and above all, loved a good hawk, and would follow a flight, if need be, into the next county. Indulging in these pastimes, he often went far afield, and from some of the entries in his 'Household Book,' it is clear that he enjoyed many a good day's sport in Norfolk. Thus in the autumn of 1573 we find the items :

Aug. "For my mr and mre expenses with the other gentlemen accompanying them and their men in their journey into Norfolk about hunting the buck ther. . . . . xxiiijs. vjd.”

Sept. "In rewarde to sundrie keepers when my m. hunted in Norfolk XXVS."

Oct.

"For bayting my m2 his horse at Brandon and for his dinner there being in hawking . . . . . iiijs. iiijd.

and the following December:

"For my m his charges in being abrode in hawking into Norff. with other gentlemen accompanying him . . . . . iijli. xijs. viijd.”

He kept his own hawks, and probably a goodly number, as it took a carpenter and his assistant a week to build him a hawkhouse. In February, 1573, we find the item :—

"To Dyser, carpenter, for vj days' work of him and his man in making hawkes mews at xd. the daye. . . . VS."

.....

He fed his hawks upon rooks in the spring, and these he took in nets. In February and March, 1574, he paid

"To John Cocker, for a nette to catch rooks for hawkes meate iijs. vjd."

No doubt these were wanted for "entering" his rook-hawks, to each of which he would give a live rook "in the foot" before flying it at the wild quarry. In the autumn he turned his attention to game-hawking, and kept a few spaniels to assist him. Now and then a neighbour, knowing his tastes, would send him over a brace of these useful dogs, for which the man in charge of them would be duly requited. Thus :

"To Mr. Tilney his lackey for bringing my mr two spaniels. . xijd.”