280 COSMOS. 



measures, together with the lower new red sandstone (Todt- 

 liegcnde and Zechstein).* 



3. The upper trias, including variegated sandstone,* mus- 

 chelkalk, and keuper. 



4. Jura limestone (lias and oolite). 



5. Green sandstone, the quader sanstein, upper and lower 

 chalk, terminating the secondary formations, which begin with 

 limestone. 



6. Tertiary formations in three divisions, distinguished as 

 granular limestone, the lignites, and the sub-apennine gravel 

 of Italy. 



Then follow, in the alluvial beds, the colossal bones of the 

 mammalia of the primitive world, as the Mastodon, Dinothe- 

 rium, Missurimn, and the Megatherides, amongst which is 

 Owen's sloth-like Mylodon, eleven feet in length.f Besides 

 these extinct families we find the fossil remains of still extant 

 animals, as the elephant, rhinoceros, ox, horse, and stag. 

 The field near Bogota, called the Campo de Giyantes, which 

 is filled with the bones of Mastodons, and in which I caused 

 excavations to be made, lies 8740 feet above the level 

 of the sea, whilst the osseous remains, found in the elevated 

 plateaux of Mexico, belong to true elephants of extinct 

 species. J The projecting spurs of the Himalaya, the Sewalik 



* Murchison makes two divisions of the hunter sandstone, the upper 

 being the same as the trios of Albert! ; whilst of the lower division, to 

 which the Vosges sandstone of Elie de Beaumont belongs the zechstein 

 and the iodtliegende he forms his Permian system. He makes the 

 secondary formations commence with the upper trias, that is to say. 

 with the upper division of our (German) bunter sandstone ; while the 

 Permian system, the carboniferous or mountain limestone, and the 

 Devonian and Silurian strata constitute his palceozoic formations* 

 According to these views, the chalk and Jura constitute the upper, and 

 the keuper, the muschelkalk, and the bunter sandstone the lower 

 secondary formations : whilst the Permian system and the carboniferous 

 limestone are the upper, and the Devonian and Silurian strata are the 

 lower palreozoic formation. The fundamental principles of this general 

 classification are developed in the great work in which this indefatigable 

 British geologist purposes to describe the geology of a large part of 

 Eastern Europe. 



t [See Mantell's Wonders of Geology, vol. i. p. 168.] Tr. 



% Ciivicr, Gssemensfossiles, 1821, t. i. pp. 157, 261, and 264 ; see also 

 Humboldt, Ueber die Hochebene von Bogota, in the Deutschen 

 teljahrs-sckrift, 1839, bd. i. & 117. 



