sea. 



AGES OF MOUNTAIN SYSTEMS. 



in the mountains which connect the Alps with the Jura, as far as 

 the Pont d'Ain and Lons-le-Saulnier. It was this catastrophe 

 which determined the principal direction of the coasts of Italy, as 

 well as that of a system of elevated ridges in Greece, of which 

 Pindarus forms part. 



217. XIII. SYSTEM OF THE PYRENEES. By this catastrophe 

 the upper cretaceous strata, 

 o, fig. 130, were raised and rig. iso. 



dislocated. Lower tertiary 



The lower tertiary strata, 

 p, being horizontal, show 

 that the date of the cata- 

 strophe is between that of 

 the lower tertiary and the ? h gfdcba 



upper cretaceous periods. By this disturbance the upper creta- 

 ceous strata have been elevated to a considerable height, forming 

 lofty cliffs, especially along the Spanish frontier. 



The calcareous strata of the Paris basin, usually considered as 

 the lowest of the tertiary strata, having but little extent over the 

 surface of France, or even of Europe, it follows that at the epoch 

 of the formation of the Pyrenean system, the chief part of the 

 continent of Europe was suddenly raised above the waters and 

 rendered dry land. 



Not only the whole chain of the Pyrenees, as well in France as 

 in the Asturias, belongs to this epoch, but also that of the 

 Apennines, the Julian Alps, the Carpathians, the Balkans, and 

 the mountains of Greece. The same direction is discovered in 

 numerous dislocations and denudations in Germany, in the north 

 of France, and in the Wealden of England ; from whence it 

 appears that this catastrophe must have had a vast extent, 

 affecting certainly the entire surface of Europe and probably of 

 the world. 



218. XIY. SYSTEM OF COESICA. This catastrophe, unlike the 

 former ones, is not marked by an elevation of the strata, which 

 were formed under the water. After the preceding elevation, the 

 Parisian lime-stone, which would then be found, is completely 

 absent in those places where the new catastrophe was manifested. 



The absence of this deposit signifies that the ground over the 

 whole of Europe at that epoch was raised above the level of the 

 sea ; but as observation shows us that in this same place other 

 marine deposits were made at a later period, it must be concluded 

 that those parts which were first elevated above the ocean sunk 

 below it at a subsequent period, so as to receive the superjacent 

 deposits now found upon them. This must in fact have happened 

 to part of the Paris basin, to Touraine, the chief part of Gascony, 



c 2 19 



