356 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



which downstream pass into the low terrace, 20 meters above the 

 present level. The high terrace in these valleys is 40 meters above 

 the present level and indicates an older glacial extension, for it con- 

 tains very big blocks, sometimes little rolled, but the moraines cor- 

 responding to this glaciation are still unknown or have not yet been 

 distinguished from those of the last glaciation. The lower terrace 

 near Sarlieve contains Elephas primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, 

 Rangifer tarandus and late paleolithic implements, and must accord- 

 ingly represent the Wurm glaciation, so that the higher terrace cor- 

 responds to the Riss glaciation, and the glacial remains of the pla- 

 teau to the Mindelian. This correlation is further borne out by 

 the succession in the valleys of Aquitania and in the Pyrenees. The 

 glacial phenomena here were investigated by A. Penck in 1885 (126). 

 The moraines almost everywhere rest on ancient rocks, and he was 

 unable to find two superposed moraines separated by temperate de- 

 posits, but there is a clear distinction between exterior and interior 

 series of moraines, the latter being the younger. The snow line was 

 about 1,000 meters below the present; there was also a late glacial 

 stadium indicated by a chain of valley lakes with the snow line 600 

 meters below the present. He distinguished three well-marked de- 

 veloped gravel terraces, especially thick in the Toulouse region ; they 

 contain striated pebbles, and the two older are weathered much more 

 than the 3 T ounger. These terraces were investigated in more detail, 

 especially in the valley of the Garonne by M. Boule (127) who 

 showed the existence of four terraces, at about 130, 100, 55, and 15 

 meters above the present valley. The two oldest of these are very 

 much weathered, the granite pebbles being entirely decomposed; 

 they can not be connected with any moraines. The third or "high 

 terrace," 55 meters is formed by pebbles much less weathered than 

 those of the 100-meter terrace, but the granites and schists are some- 

 what altered ; this terrace apparently corresponds to older moraines 

 in the Pyrenees. The third terrace contains quartzite implements 

 of Acheulian type. The low terrace (15 meters) is composed of very 

 fresh pebbles together with weathered ones from the high terraces; 

 upstream it passes into a very fresh moraine. These moraines and 

 the two lower terraces can be distinguished in most of the Pyrenean 

 Valleys. 



Summary for the south of France and the Plateau Central: 

 Gunzian: (?) Pnmiceous conglomerate of Perrier (Puy-de-Dome). 



Mastodon sands of Velay. 



130-meter terrace of Garonne. 

 Gunz-Mindel: Subbasaltic alluvium of Perrier (Machaerodus; Elephas men- 



dionalis ) . 

 Mindelian : " Plateau glacial " of Plateau Central. 



200-meter (fluvio-glacial) terrace of Dordogne. 



100-meter terrace of Garonne. 



