234 Physical Geography. 



over a very large part of the Europe of the present day, 

 long before the Alps and the Pyrenees rose into moun- 

 tain chains, and only a few islands formed of Palaeozoic 

 rocks stood above the waves. This surely was a striking 

 phase of an older physical geography, which affected 

 areas far wider than Europe alone, but which in the 

 course of time came to an end in a manner which we 

 shall presently see. To do so thoroughly we must con- 

 sider the rocks of the continent for a little. 



A vast lapse of time took place between the close of 

 the deposition of the uppermost Cretaceous strata of 

 England, and the commencement of the deposition of 

 the succeeding Eocene formations, for in England we 

 have no deposits of intermediate age. What, however, 

 helps to prove this great hiatus is, that on the Meuse, at 

 Maestricht, there is a calcareous formation about 100 

 feet thick, which lies unconformably on the Chalk, the 

 line of unconformity being marked by a line of water- 

 worn flint pebbles. Some of the fossils are of the same 

 species with those found in the Chalk, and Cephalopoda 

 of the genera Baculites and Hamites, not yet known in 

 strata younger than the Cretaceous rocks of Europe, 

 are found in the Maestricht beds. On the other hand, 

 Volutes, and other genera of Tertiary type, are found in 

 the strata, so that this marine fauna may be said to be 

 of a type intermediate to those of the Cretaceous and 

 Eocene epochs. 



Extending for great distances round Paris, there are 

 numerous small patches of pisolitic limestone, once 

 united, but now separated by denudation. These contain 

 some Cretaceous species, but many others are more 

 Eocene than Cretaceous in their affinities. 



At Faxoe also, in the Isle of Seeland, in Denmark, 

 there is a yellow limestone so full of corals that it was 



