690 EEPORT— 1895. 



LowEK Lias. 



To the south of the tunnel, several minor and cue major fault have let down 

 the Rhfetic and Lower Lias — which is liere exposed as part of the great Hoton 

 and Buckminster fault — with an inverted downthrow. The heds of the Planorbis 

 zone, as usually exhibited in Leicestershire, are here present, resting on disturbed 

 Upper Rhsetic grey, sandy marls, with the usual septariform nodules. 



The writer defers, however, the full consideration of this portion until certain 

 sections, now in progress, are united to give the proper sequence. 



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER IG. 



The following Papers and Eeports were read : — 



L Probable Extension of the Seas during Upper Tertiary Times 

 in Western Europe. By G. F. Dollfus. 



Taking into consideration the position and nature of all the outliers of 

 Upper Tertiary age, the author is led to the following conclusions as to the exten- 

 sion of the Neogenic seas in "Western Europe. During Miocene times England 

 was united to France, and we have pi'oof of the existence of two seas in the western 

 part of Europe ; one on the east extended over part of Belgium (Bolderian system), 

 Holland, and north of Germany — probably this sea was not very far off the eastern 

 coast of England ; the other sea, the Western, or old Atlantic Sea, was off Ireland, 

 penetrating in various gulfs into France, as in some part of Cotentin, Brittany, in 

 the Loire valley, in the gulf of the Gironde, but there was no way of communica- 

 tion with the Mediterranean basin crossing France. Li North Spain there are no 

 Miocene deposits, in Portugal Miocene beds are jturely littoral. 



The communication with the Mediterranean Sea was certainly by the valley 

 of the Guadalquivir. The Gibraltar Strait had not exactly its present place. 

 The fauna of these Miocene coasts was warm and very similar to the existing 

 fauna of Senegal and Guinea. 



We can divide Pliocene time into three periods, but the situations of the seas 

 were not very different. England was always in direct continental communication 

 with France, the I'^nglish Channel was not open at all. All the Pliocene deposits of 

 Belgium, North France, or England, even the Lenham beds, are on the side of the 

 North-Eastern Sea ; we find all these patches on the northern side of the great 

 anticlinal line of the Artois, Boulonnais, and Weald. The fauna is different from 

 the Miocene, and colder — it even turns more and more cold during the progress of 

 Pliocene lime. On the western or Atlantic side we have little gulfs leading the 

 sea into the land, but not so frequently and not so far as during Miocene times. 

 The Cornwall deposits, Cotentin beds, and the Brittany patches are very limited ; 

 the basin of the Gironde contains no trace of Pliocene beds, and we have no trace 

 of recent marine beds at the foot of the Pyrenees. In the north of Spain there is 

 also no trace of Pliocene beds. The continent seems to have been higher, and the 

 Atlantic tolerably distant. All the Portuguese sands recently discovered are 

 littoral, and only on the Algarve coast and south of Spain do we find proof of the 

 probable communication with the Mediterranean. The Gibraltar Strait was not 

 always in the same place during Pliocene time ; in the beginning probably the 

 Guadalquivir valley to Murcia continued to be the strait, but later the rock of 

 Gibraltar was separated from Africa and a new road was open ; this way was cer- 

 tainly deeper than the former one, and as deep as the existing strait. By this 

 depression the cold fauna of the depths of the Atlantic penetrated into the Medi- 

 terranean Sea as far as Sicily and Italy with Ciiprinn Islandica. 



The geology of ^lorocco is unknown, but we have plenty of information on 

 Algeria. We have there great Miocene deposits raised along the Atlas Chain up to 



