European Tertiiiry Baaiiis nearly enclosed, 345 



of basins after the chalk period, and even before it ; but if ba- 

 sins and gulfs existed at that time, these should also have been 

 separated by ridges, or at least by plateanoc ; and what circum- 

 stances can have prevented the local existence of true Caspian 

 or inland seas ? 



When we examine the European tertiary basins, we become 

 convinced that they were nearly enclosed on all sides. If it had 

 been otherwise, the Jurassic chain not existing, the Swiss rao- 

 lass would have extended into Franche-Comte. Without the 

 German Jura or Alb, and the Black Forest, the valleys of the 

 Necker and the Upper Maine would not be deprived of tertiary 

 rocks; without the circular zone of Bohemian mountains, that 

 country would offer a mixture of the tertiary deposits of Austria 

 and of northern Germany. Without the Carpathians, the ba- 

 sins of Austria, Hungary, and Gallicia would be identic. 

 Without the Alps, we could not explain the difference between 

 the tertiary rocks of the northern and southern sides. Without 

 the hills in northern Germany, the mineralogical difference of 

 the basins of that country with those of the southern part of 

 Germany, would remain unexplained. Without the chalk 

 ridges of England, we would be astonished to see the London 

 clay deposited at the same time with the Paris limestone. We 

 cannot be answered by saying that the alluvial matter brought 

 down by rivers must have been different in different gulfs, 

 because we quote examples like that of the Necker, where no- 

 thing whatever was deposited, and Bohemia and Auvergne, 

 where there is only a single deposit. Still we would have the 

 unexplained fact of the Paris limestone on the southern foot of 

 the Alps, and the molasse on the northern side. 



On the other hand, the study of the upheaving of strata has 

 led Humboldt, Jobert, De Beaumont, and ourselves, to acknow- 

 ledge that elevations have taken place at different times, so that 

 there have been at all times different levels, and hills, and chains, 

 and, consequently, the more the number of elevations has increased 

 the more the chains and levels become numerous, and also the ca- 

 vities or basins. Amongst these last, those which remained at the 

 level of the ocean, or of which the bottom was still lower, were 

 then gulfs or bays more or less separated during the time that 

 the inland seas were occupying those of which the bottom was 



