QUATERNAEY DEPOSITS OF BRITISH ISLES BROOKS. 357 



Mindel-Ris.s : Erosion in Dordogne and Garonne. 



Beds with Hippopotamus and Rhinoceros Merckii of Dordogne. 

 Eissian : "High terrace" (40 meters) of Dordogne, with big blocks. 



55-meter terrace of Garonne, with older moraines. Acheulian. 

 Wurmiau: "Low terrace" (20 meters) of Dordogne, passing into very 



fresh moraines. 



15-meter terrace of Garonne, with younger moraines. 



PARIS BASIN. 



In the north of France we have the Paris Basin, which is impor- 

 tant because of its famons paleolithic sites. The sequence has been 

 frequently studied, the results being summarized by J. Ladriere 

 (128) in 1890-91 and more recently l)y E. Haug in 1912 (125). The 

 oldest Quaternary deposit of the district appears to be a bed of coarse 

 sand and fine gravel at St. Prest, near Chartres, containing Trogon- 

 theriv/m CuvieH, Equus /Stenonis, Rhinoceros sp., Hijypopotamus 

 major, Cervus carrmtorvmb and Elephas rrberidionalis associated with 

 eoliths. Hippopotamus shows this to be a temperate fauna, and 

 from its ancient facies, in spite of the absence of Mobcliaerodus, it 

 must be referred to the same horizon as the subbasaltic alluvium of 

 Perrier, i, e., the Gunz-Mindel interglacial of the Alps. 



In the Paris Basin are three gravel formations, the "plateau 

 gravels," the " high terrace," and the " low terrace," at Paris these 

 two terraces occur on the slopes below the plateau gravels at heights 

 of 30 meters and 5 meters above the level of the Seine; downstream 

 the high terrace comes to rest on the plateau gravels, in which case 

 they are separated, not by a fine interglacial series, but merely by a 

 bed of coarse, gravelly sand. The two deposits must not be sepa- 

 rated, but must be treated together, like the 130-foot and 100-foot ter- 

 races of the Thames east of London. The plateau gi-avels rest on 

 the mammaliferous sand of St. Prest, while stratigraphically they 

 evidently correspond with part at least of the upper terrace group 

 of the Moselle. The pebbles composing them are very much altered, 

 and they contain some big blocks of granite. The plateau gravels 

 contain in addition remains of Elephas primigenius and Rhinoceros 

 tichorhinus, and in the Seine Valley, also E. antiquus and Rh. 

 MercMi. 



On the gravels of the " high terrace " often rests a thick series of 

 finer sediments — sands, fine gravels, and clays — and a similar series 

 often underlies the gi-avels of the low terrace. These beds contain 

 an interglacial fauna including Hippopotamus major, Rhinoceros 

 Merckii, and Elephas antiquus. This warm fauna is associated with 

 implements of Chellean type. 



The succeeding gravels of the " low terrace " contain a woll-markcd 

 cold fauna — Elephas priTnigenivs, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, and Cer- 

 65133°— SM 1917 24 



