604 STRATIGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY 



occur in the Coralline Crag, and that 85 per cent of the whole are 

 living species, which is about the same proportion as in the Red Crag. 

 The clays of d'Aubiguy, on the other hand, have only 50 per cent 

 of living species, and contain a larger number of southern species 

 which give them a different and older aspect ; but the difference 

 may be due to the different conditions under which the two 

 deposits were formed rather than to difference of age. 



It seems probable, therefore, that all these deposits are of 

 about the same age as the Lenham Beds and the Diestian of 

 Belgium, and that it was by connection between the Atlantic 

 and the Belgian Seas across the north of France that the southern 

 species of Mollusca made their way eastward. 



In Central and Eastern France the Pliocene deposits are 

 mainly of lacustrine and fluviatile origin, but these yield assem- 

 blages of mammalian remains by means of which they can be 

 referred to one or other of the three stages of the series. Thus 

 the earliest of these assemblages is that found in the ossiferous 

 breccias of Mt. Luberon and Cucuron in Vaucluse ; these beds 

 contain many of the same species as occur in the Pontian of 

 Eastern Europe, especially Hipparion gracile, Rhinoceros Scheier- 

 macheri, Palceoryx Cordieri, Helladotherium, and Dinotherium. 



In the Auvergne district the general succession may be 

 tabulated as follows : 23 



TJ /Plateau basalts with tuffs and breccias containing bones of 



\ Elcphas meridionalis. 

 Middl /Stratified deposits of Perrier and Le Puy. 



\ Upper phonolite and hanyne andesites. 



j . , fAndesitic trachytes and porphyritic basalts with intercalated 

 ^ breccias. 



The stratified beds of Perrier overlie the Miocene (see Fig. 

 194), and have a conglomerate at the base containing bones of 

 Mastodon arvernensis and Machcerodus cultridens, succeeded by 

 cenerites and sands, the former embedding leaves of plants which 

 comprise maple (Acer polymorphum), beech (Fagus phocenica), and 

 a bamboo (Bambusa lugdunensis). These beds are overlain by a 

 breccia of trachyte fragments, among which are bones of Elephas 

 meridionalis, Equus stenonis, and Gazella Julieni ; while in Le 

 Puy pebbly sands beneath the basalts have yielded Rhinoceros 

 etruscus and Hippopotamus major. 



Farther south we find a more complete succession of stratified 

 deposits, without volcanic intercalations, and including a thick 

 marine Placentian stage. These beds extend from near Lyons 

 southward along the valley of the Rhone and spread out in 

 Provence. The general succession is as follows : 



