496 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 42. 



the amount of this action which is measur- 

 able within recent years ; Mr. Spiller esti- 

 mates this amount to vary between 10 and 

 84 feet in six years at different points along 

 the coast. Mr. H. B. Woodward describes 

 the section exposed by the storm just men- 

 tioned : Norwich Crag below the Chalky 

 Boulder Clay, and above that a bed con- 

 taming fresh water shells followed by a 

 peaty deposit. 



A paper by M. G. F. Dollfus, on the 

 probable extension of the seas during Upper 

 Tertiary times in western Europe, is so im- 

 portant that we give a full abstract of it: 



Taking into consideration the positive 

 nature of all the outliers of Upper Tertiaiy 

 age, the author is led to the following con- 

 clusions as to the extension of the Neogenic 

 seas in western Europe. During Miocene 

 times England was united to France, and 

 we have proof of the existence of two seas 

 in the western part of Europe; one on the 

 east extended over part of Belgium (Bol- 

 derian system), Holland, and north of Ger- 

 many — 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 

 communication with the Mediterranean 

 basin crossing France. In north Spain 

 there are no Miocene deposits; in Portugal 

 Miocene beds are purely littoral. 



The communication with the Mediter- 

 ranean. Sea was certainly by the valley of 

 the Guadalquivir. The Gibraltar Strait 

 had not exactlj'^ its present place. The 

 fauna of these Miocene coasts was warm 

 and verj^ 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 English Channel was not open 

 at all. AU the Pliocene deposits of Belgium, 

 north France, or England, even the Len- 

 ham beds, are on the side of the JSTorth- 

 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 fi-om the Miocene, and 

 colder; it even turns more and more cold 

 during the progress of Pliocene time. 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 Brittanj' 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 recentlj^ discovered are 

 littoral, and onlj^ on the Algarve coast and 

 south of Spain do we find proof of the 

 probable communication with the Mediter- 

 ranean. The Gibraltar Strait was not al- 

 ways in the same place during Pliocene 

 time; in the beginning probablj^ the Guadal- 

 quivir 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 certainlj' 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 Mediterranean Sea as far as Sicily 

 and Italj' with Cyprina Islandica. 



The geology of Morocco is unknown, but 

 we have pleutj' of information on Algeria. 

 We have there great Miocene deposits raised 

 along the Atlas Chain up to a great alti- 

 tude, and a little lower a good and verj^ long 

 band of Pliocene beds of marine and conti- 

 nental origin. Quaternary deposits, similarly 

 continental and littoral, occur lying along 



