CHAP, in.] MEIOCENE GEOGRAPHY ON THE CONTINENT. 61 



sentecl by two forms which survived from the middle 

 Meiocenes, lived in France and Germany ; the Macro- 

 therium, or gigantic ant-eater ; and the Ancylotherium, 

 allied to the rhinoceros and mastodon as well as to the 

 Pangolins of Asia and Africa. Like the living Pangolin, 

 the latter probably fed upon insects, and more especially 

 ants and termites, which Professor Heer has shown to 

 have abounded in Meiocene Switzerland. 



Three kinds of birds inhabited the Mediterranean 

 district in the neighbourhood of Attica, a pheasant 

 (Phasianus Archaici) larger than the common species, 

 a small fowl (Gallus cesculapii), and a wader (Grus 

 Pentelici). 



Meiocene Geography on the Continent. 



Great geographical changes took place in the Meiocene 

 age on the continent of Europe. In the lower Meiocene 

 large tracts of land were submerged in France, Belgium, 

 and Italy. Then followed a period of elevation above 

 the sea-level, during which there were great lakes in 

 Auvergne and Switzerland, in which the lower fresh- 

 water "molasse" were deposited. Then followed a second 

 period of depression below the sea-level, which reduced 

 the continent to the condition of an archipelago. The 

 waters of the Mediterranean flowed northwards past 

 Berne to join the sea, then covering the basin of the 

 Danube. This mid Meiocene sea afterwards gradually 

 became shallower, and the freshwater lakes of the lower 

 Meiocene are again repeated in Switzerland and in 

 France in the upper Meiocene age. 



Auvergne was one of the centres of volcanic activity, 

 and the Meiocene lakes were frequently invaded by 



