Calcaire grossiere and Paris Gypsum. 165 



Paris jusqu'en Hongrie''* (p. 190.) ; and he is equally at fault 

 when he attempts to apply the accidens of the peculiar Paris 

 basin to those of different basins, as those of the Aar, of Ulm, of 

 Bavaria, Hungary, and Lombardy. (P. 190.) We would even 

 contest with him the proposition, that out of the Paris basin there 

 are many known spots where the tritonian limestone is covered 

 with his paleotherian formation (p. 186.) ; we at least know no 

 place out of the Paris basin where such a thing is to be seen, for 

 «ven in England the superpositions are not quite identical. Be- 

 sides, since the bones of the gypsum of Montmartre have been 

 found in the tritonian limestone, there remain only the minera- 

 logical characters to enable us to join together the gypsums of 

 Paris and of the Puy en Velay. For the Aix one, the zoologi- 

 cal characters are already not^identical, and the tritonian lime- 

 stone is wanting at Puy. In Lombardy we are not acquainted 

 with any fresh-water deposit, and fresh-water and terrestrial 

 shells are rare. In Hungary and Bavaria there is only a fresh- 

 water deposit deposited in ancient tertiary lakes, of which the 

 borders are still more or less visible. There are a good many 

 beds of marine and fresh-water shells mixed together, but these 

 last are only small accidens in the upper tertiary soil. Lastly^ 

 The valley of the Aar seems to us to be only occupied by these 

 last formations. 



The four alternations of the Paris deposits are thus only ex- 

 ceptions to a general rule, and not the case upon which the clas- 

 sifications of the tertiary deposits of all the basins must be mo- 

 delled. Paris has had many observers, which is the cause of 

 this error, in the same manner as the minute study of the Ger- 

 man zechstein has so long retarded the progress of geological 

 classification. (P. 175.) All the facts go to prove that the up- 

 per tertiary soil predominates in the greater number of the ter- 

 tiary basins distributed throughout Europe. The epilymnique 

 formation is but seldom met with beyond the Paris basin, or at 

 least when it does appear, it is without the buhrstone or meu- 

 liere. If the paleotherian or gypsum rocks may be compared, 



• The calcaire grossier and London clay belong to the tritonien ; certain 

 lignites, Paris gypsum, and calcaire siliceux belong to the paleotherien ; the 

 crag of English geologists, nagelflu, and calcaire moellen, belong to the pro- 

 teique ; and certain travertines, certain marls of the Isle of Wight, Paris 

 basin, and Hungary, &c and mill or buhrstone, belong to the epilymnique 

 group. 



