319 The Oligocene of the Southern United States 9 



PART I. 



The Oligocene of Western Europe 

 Field Work in the Oligocene of France and Belgium. 



The European fossiliferous deposits have been visited by 

 colletflors for so many years that in many localities the supply of 

 fossils is greatly diminished, or even exhausted, as in the basin of 

 the Adour. The level topography and consequence absence of 

 natural sedlions make the eolledlor dependent on artificial expos- 

 ures such as are obtained in quarries and sand pits, or along road- 

 side cuts. Of these quarries, some once famous for their fossil- 

 iferous beds have been long abandoned. That of Jeurre, where 

 Deshaj^es and Eamarck obtained many Oligocene types, is filling 

 up with material washed down from above. A photograph of 

 this quarry as it now appears is shown on opposite page. The 

 once equally noted sand pit of Morigny is to-day quite hidden in 

 a thicket, and the fossiliferous sands are overgrown with grass 

 and rendered almost inaccessible by the interlacing roots of trees. 



In Belgium an obstacle was encountered which was pra(5li- 

 cally insurmountable. The Government claimed a monopoly* of 

 the building sands of the country and consequentl}' ordered that 

 many of the sand pits hitherto worked by private companies 

 should be filled up. This resulted in the closure of many of th.e 

 fossiliferous deposits, as, among others, that of Berg. 



Nevertheless, the lithological chara(5lers of the principal beds 

 were studied and samples of the deposits were coUecfted. The 

 writer was also fortunate enough to secure the following species: 

 -\-Conov21lus Pyramidalis, T. Sow.,t Antwerp. 



Limncea strigosa, Romainsville. 



" ventricosa, Montmorency. 



Planorbis cortiii, Romainsville. 



* To avoid the taxation resulting from this monopoly, the peasants steal 

 the sands by night. In many places holes, lightly covered with sod, are 

 evidences of these depredations. 



fA number of Pliocene species, which are indicated by a ( + ), are 

 included in the list. 



