In the discussion which followed the reading of Dr. Sutherland’s paper, Professor Ramsay pointed out that in the Natal beds enormous blocks of rock occurred, which were 60 or 80 miles from their original home, and still remained angular; and there was a difficulty in accounting for the phenomena on any other hypothesis than that suggested. Mr. Stow, in his paper on the Karoo beds, has expressed a similar opinion regarding the glacial character of the formation.[178] But we have in the Karoo beds evidence not only of glaciation, but of a much warmer condition of things than presently exists in that latitude. This is shown from the fact that the shells of the _Trigona_-beds indicate a tropical or subtropical condition of climate. _Arctic Regions._—The evidence which we have of the existence of a warm climate during the Permian period is equally conclusive. The close resemblance of the _flora_ of the Permian period to that of Carboniferous times evidently points to the former prevalence of a warm and equable climate. And the existence of the magnesian limestone in high latitudes seems to indicate that during at least a part of the Permian period, just as during the accumulation of the carboniferous limestone, a warm sea must have obtained in those latitudes. OOLITIC PERIOD. _North of Scotland._—There is not wanting evidence of something like the action of ice during the Oolitic period.[179] In the North of Scotland Mr. James Geikie says there is a coarse boulder conglomerate associated with the Jurassic strata in the east of Sutherland, the possibly glacial origin of which long ago suggested itself to Professor Ramsay and other observers. Mr. Judd believes the boulders to have been floated down by ice from the Highland mountains at the time the Jurassic strata were being accumulated.