TIIK Mioi KM-! >Kl:lKS 



tin- i'"i;iiation which was formerly known as the Calcaiie de la 

 Beance, I'ruin which the ('alcaire d'Kiampe- In- IU-I-M .-e pi rated (see 

 p. .">!(!). Tin- Miocene jiart is now called I In- ( '.ilcaire de 1'Orleanais, 

 and in tin- (Jatinais di.-trict the two are divided by a band of 

 greenish marl or clay, which is takm at the base of the Aquitanian. 

 Th. thickness of these marls and limestones is about 100 feet, and 

 with tin; Calcaire d'Etampes they overstep all the older beds both 

 southwards and westwards so as to lie directly on the Cretaceous 

 and Jura .-sic rocks. Their characteristic fossils are Helix aurelian- 



. II. Morognesi, Limncea pachygaster, and Planorbis solidus, with 

 remains of Anchitherium aurelianense. 



Burdigalian. The Orleanais Limestone is overlain by an 

 extensive deposit of granitic sands, the Sables de 1'Orleanais and the 

 Sables de la Sologne, which are divided by a band of white and 

 green marls with Melania Escheri. The sands have been derived 

 1Y< >iu the contemporaneous erosion of the Central Plateau, and out- 

 lying pitches of them extend westward to Blois and Poitiers and 

 northward to Rouen and Havre. The thickness of the group is 

 about 90 feet, and the lower sands contain remains of Mastodon 

 angustidens and two other species, Dinotherium Cuvieri, Rhinoceros 

 aurelianense, and Amphicyon. 



Helvetian. This does not occur within the limits of the Paris 

 basin, but consists of a number of separate tracts and patches of 

 shelly calcareous sand around Blois, Tours, and Anders, with others 

 to the north-west near Kennes and Dinan in Brittany. These beds' 

 were termed Falunian by d'Orbigny from the peasant's name of 

 falun for this kind of material, which resembles that known as 

 crag in the east of England. The beds are marine, and mark an 

 invasion of the western ocean. The most typical fauna is found 

 near Pontlevoz and Savigne", and some of the commoner fossils are 

 Area iuronica, Ostrea crassissima, Pecten scabrellus,Lucina Dujardini, 

 Trochus miocenicus, Potamides pictus, Conus (Conospira) Dujardini, 

 and Nassa limatula. 



Tortonian. In this western area (Maine and Anjou) there is a 

 still newer set of de]io.-it.-, distinguished by the abundance of 

 Bryozoa with fragments of Lithotliamnium (a calcareous alga), many 

 Echinoderms of the genera Amphiope, Scutella, and Echinolampas, 

 and the teeth of large sharks, Carcharodon and Oxyrhina. 



3. Auvergne and Velay 



Aquitanian. Since the liine>tones with Helix Ramondi are now 

 referred to the Oligocene, there is little to represent the Aquitanian 

 in this part of France, and M. Dollfus believes that there is a gap 

 (lacuna) or want of continuity in the series of lacustrine deposits. 



