THK OI.ICOCKNK SERIES 565 



Southward tti\\;ii-d tin- Alps these beds pass into a great mass 

 of shales, -ainlstones, and congloinerdtes which are called Molane by 

 tin- S \vi.-s geologists and Flysch by the Germans and Austrian.-. 

 Of the-r -andy d']>osits about 5000 feet belong to the Oligocrn.-, 

 and the lower part of them is probably of Tongrian age, but they 

 contain \vry fe\v fossils. 



" Nut him,'," says .lukc>, ''is more calculated to strike the 

 geological traveller on his first visit to Switzerland than the vast 

 deposit of the ' Molasse,' occupying the central region between tin- 

 Alps and the Jura. This is the country of the great lakes, 

 extending from that of Geneva to that of Constance. The hills by 

 which these lakes are environed have all the rugged and broken 

 character of mountains, and rise in peaks of various altitudes up to 

 that of 6050 feet, which is the height of Rhigi Kulm. These hills, 

 which, if they were not overshadowed by the still loftier Alps, 

 would themselves be celebrated mountains, are composed from top 

 to bottom of beds of sand and gravel, occasionally compacted into 

 sandstones and conglomerate." 



4. The Paris Basin 



Ludian. French geologists are not agreed as to the precise 

 line of division between the Eocene and Oligocene Series, the fact 

 being that there is a gradual transition from one to the other, 23 but 

 it is generally conceded that the Lower Gypsum beds of Montmartre 

 may be correlated with the Headon Beds of Hampshire, and it is 

 convenient to retain the name Ludian (from Ludes, near Rheims) 

 as a designation for these beds. Near Paris they comprise three 

 beds of gypsum, separated by beds of yellow marl which contain 

 a few marine fossils, but in the eastern part of the basin the mails 

 predominate and are more fossiliferous, containing Pholadomya 

 ludensis, Cardium granulosum, Psammobia neglecta, Potamides 

 concavus, etc. The total thickness varies from 60 to 120 feet 



Sannoisian. This includes the highest bed of gypsum, which 

 is 65 feet thick at Montmartre and has yielded the bones of fifty 

 different species of mammals, including Palceotherium magnum, 

 P. medium, Anoplotherium commune, and Xiphodon gracile. This 

 ma of gypsum may be regarded as contemporaneous with the 

 Lower Bembridge or Osborne Beds and the Bembridge Limestone. 

 Above are a set of marls known as the Supra-gypseous Beds ; tin- 

 lowest are white and blue marls with a few freshwater fossils, 

 overlain by green marls containing Cyrena temistriata, Dosinia 

 incrassata, Psammobia plana, Potamides plicatus, etc. Above 

 there is another lacustrine deposit, the Calcaire de Brie, consisting 



