ON TilK MOVEMENTS OF THE EARTh's CRUST. 841 



represents twenty-live deposits and several (live to six) oscillations, is 

 only 31.5 meters thick; Sables de Beaucbanip, 13 to 14 meters; tlie 

 Calcaire de St. Ouen, with ten alternating deposits, is only to 7 meters ; 

 marine gyi)snni, 16 to 17 meters; palustriue i;yi)snni, 20 meters; Sables 

 d'Etampes, 11 to 12 meters. 



In the Isle of Wight the beds are thicker, but also richer in mechani- 

 cal deposits : Plastic clay, 2G meters; London clay, 61 meters; Lower 

 Bagshot (sand, clay, lignite, and ferruginous sandstone, with seven 

 alternating deposits), in all, 200 meters ; Bracklesham, of the same kiiul 

 as the preceding and without any alternation, 33.5 meters; Middle 

 Bagshot, 91 meters; Upper Bagshot, (sand, without alternations), 37 

 meters; Lower Headon, 2i meters; Middle, 7 meters, and Upper 

 Headon, 26 meters; Osborne Series, 19 meters; Bembridge limestone, 

 7.6' meters; Bembridge marl, 23 meters; and Hempstead Series, 52 

 meters. 



From Belgium we have the following thicknesses: Montien (coarse 

 limestone with foraminifera), 93 meters; Heersieu, 32 meters; Land- 

 enien, about 60 meters; Ypresien, 140 meters; Bruxellien, 50 meters; 

 Laekenien, 10 meters; Wemmelien, up to SO meters (only determined 

 by boring); Tongrien, 21 meters; Rupelieu, 60 meters; Aiiversien, 3 

 to 4 meters (but near Utrecht, in an artesian well, 130 meters). 



Tiie thicknesses in the basin of Mayeuce are as follows : Alzeyer sand, 

 50 meters; Septaria clay, 50 meters; Elsheimer sands, 60 meters; Cy- 

 retia marls, 40 meters ; Ccrithium limestones, 25 meters ; Corbicula lime- 

 stones, 25 meters ; Litorinella clay, 20 meters. In Italy, Seguenza gives 

 the following thicknesses: Bartonieu (in part conglomerates, and per- 

 haps several oscillations), 300 meters; Tongrien, 50 meters; Langhien, 

 Astien, and Saharien, each 200 meters; Zancleen, 300 meters. The 

 Swiss Mollasse, which is a shore formation, is so thick that it forms 

 whole mountains ; but, according to Charles Mayer-Eymar, the Aqui- 

 tanian has a much greater and, indeed, quite exceptional thickness 

 near Bormida, in Tuscany. Here we find (probably inclined from the 

 first) fresh-water and sui)eriorly marine shore formations with manifold 

 alternations of sandstone and shales, the thickness of which, although 

 it has not been exactly measured, is believed to be 3,000 meters, and 

 all supposed to be formed in the Aquitanian period. And the same 

 stage, according to Giinibel, has a similar thickness in Bavaria. Etna, 

 which is 12,000 feet high, has been built up by volcanic eruptions in 

 the most recent geological period, and since the Mediterranean had 

 acquired a fauna essentially the same as at the present day. 



The formation of the Mediterranean, with its strong vulcanism, has 

 been distinguished, according to Suess and Neumayr, by very consider- 

 able displacements of the earth's body. The Egean Sea and th(^ Adri- 

 atic have been formed by depressions in the latest geological period. 

 Under such circumstances very thick deposits may be formed near land 

 in a short time. Eocene marine deposits are uplifted 21,000 feet above 

 the sea in folded ranges {e. (/., in Upper Asia). But all these are only 



