PARISIAN EPOCH. MOLASSE. 201 



a b d 



Fig. 309. Fauna of the epoch of the parisi'in formation. 

 a Paleothe'rium magnum. c Anoplothe'rium commune. 



6 Paleothe'rium minus. d Crocodile. 



wiih palms, to the centre of Europe. The last, which are not now 

 found closer than Africa, at the nearest point, evidently indicates a 

 mean temperature, higher than that we now enjoy, which must have 

 been about 72, the present mean temperature of lower Egypt. 

 This circumstance may be attributed to the fact that the increase 

 of internal heat was greater than at present, and that the fogs, by 

 diminishing radiation, rendered the winters less rigorous. 



Water-courses necessarily must have existed on the continent, 

 and may account for deposits of lignite, and the remains of fresh- 

 water mollusks, beincr found in place in the midst of marine depo- 

 sits. We are especially led to suppose that one of these water- 

 courses, emptying about Laon and carrying lacu'strine deposits 

 from Soissonais, and another, somewhere between Exeter and 

 Oxford, formed the deposits of the Isle of Wight, at the south- 

 west of the Wealds. Around Paris, some parts of the sea must 

 have been separated from the rest, at a certain time, and 

 converted into a fresh-water lake in which the gypsum was 

 formed. 



Epoch of the molasse. It was after the system of Corsica that 

 the molasse was formed, and, in such a manner, that it is 

 generally deposited where the Parisian limestone is entirely 

 wanting. It follows that lands which were then elevated above 

 the waters must have necessarily sunk, often to great depths, to 

 receive this new formation, which is sometimes extremely thick; 

 consequently, great modifications of the continent of the preceding 

 epoch again took place. Partial subsidences must have occurred 



