354 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



local centers of glaciation in the Vosges, the Plateau Central, and 

 the Pyrenees, but the most important Quaternary deposits of France 

 are the famous river terraces with their paleolithic implements. 



The Vosges extend into Alsace, where they have been studied by 

 E. Schumacher and W. Dames (124), who distinguished three sets of 

 gravels, a mass on the plateau, the Dekkenschotter, which can not be 

 split up into stages, and also two marked terraces in the valleys. 

 The older of these was dissected into more or less isolated portions 

 before the formation of the younger ; it ends upstream in accumula- 

 tions of blocks and patches of bowlder clay, while the younger ter- 

 race ends upstream in well-marked moraines. 



The glacial stages of the French high Vosges were also investi- 

 gated by A. Leppla (125) and correlated by him with the terraces of 

 the Moselle Valley and thus with those of the Rhine Valley. He 

 finds evidence of four glaciations : 



1. An ice sheet covering the west and south Vosges before the 

 formation of the valleys. 



2. A glaciation which filled the valleys of the Vosges when these 

 were still only slightly eroded. 



3. Great Moselle Glacier of the low valleys with its end moraines 

 at Eloyes and near Noir Gueux. 



4. Younger glaciation in the sources of the Moselle, Moslotte, 

 Vologne, and Cleurie, of less extent than the preceding and its end 

 moraines inclosing lakes. 



The first two of these correspond to the upper terrace group of the 

 Moselle, of which the lowest stage is the chief terrace, confluent with 

 that of the Rhine. Xo. 2 is therefore identical with the fii^t glacia- 

 tion of North Germany and the Mindelian glaciation of the Alps, 

 and No. 1 may represent the Gunzian glaciation. No. 3 gives rise 

 to the middle terrace group of the Moselle, 30 to 100 meters above its 

 bed, tlie lowest stage of which is the high terrace, confluent w^ith the 

 high terrace of the Rhine and therefore representing the second 

 glaciation of Germany and the Rissian of the Alps. No. 4 gives 

 rise to the low terrace group of the Moselle, 8 to 30 meters above its 

 present bed, and must represent the Wurm glaciation. 



The formations of the Plateau Central were described in detail 

 by E. Haug (125) ; they contain very rich mammalian faunas. The 

 oldest Quaternary deposits are the Pumiceous conglomerates of Per- 

 rier near Issoire (Puy-de-Dome) and the mastodon sands of Puy. 

 They were attributed by M. Boule to the mid Pliocene, but Deperet 

 has shown that the fauna is strictly Quaternary, including besides 

 Mastodon^ Elephas 'tneridionalis, Eguus, and Bos. At Perrier the 

 beds have filled a valley cut deep in an upper Neocene basaltic flow, 

 they consist of alternations of gravels and quartzose sands, with large 

 blocks, often forming a conglomerate. The blocks are derived from 



