CVl PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Above the Lignites is another marine deposit, the fauna of which 

 has been greatly extended, M. L'Eveqne having collected 300 

 species from the single locality of Cuise La Mothe ; but between 

 the lignites and the sands of Cuise La Mothe there is a deposit 

 rich in freshwater shells, and yet mixed with numerous marine 

 species, including a bed of oysters, as at Bracheux ; a large number 

 of new species has been found in this interesting deposit. The 

 sands of Aizy, near Soissons, are remarkable for the vast number 

 of Nummulites which they contain, this being the earliest portion 

 of the Paris Basin in which these fossils appear. This first num- 

 mulitic system is, however, quickly buried, when, strange to say, 

 another, and still more extensive one appears in the sands of Cuise 

 La Mothe, which again, after the extinction of the two species of 

 which it consists, is replaced by a third system of nummulites, on 

 the level of which is the middle division of the Paris Basin, or the 

 Calcaires Grossiers. The Calcaires Grossiers, so long and carefully 

 examined, still continue to pour out new treasures. At Grignon, 

 Lamarck and Defrance collected 300 species ; to that large number 

 Deshayes added 100; but M. Caillat, without leaving the park of 

 Grignon, has collected 600 species, of which 100 are new, some 

 of them remarkable as exhibiting forms not before known in the 

 Paris Basin. In the department of the Oise, M. Barbur has found 

 a large number of new species, and M. Burdo also, including several 

 Terebratulse ; so that I may well repeat that fresh comparisons of the 

 Tertiaries of England and other countries will be required after the 

 completion of the work of M. Deshayes, which, though called a 

 Supplement, will really be fully as important as the original work. 

 The sands of Reims, superposed on the Calcaire Grossier, are, from 

 their fossils, considered only the upper part of that formation, which 

 has there assumed a sandy type. The Sables Moyens, or Gres de 

 Beauchamp, though distinguished from the Calcaire Grossier by some 

 of the fossils, ought still to be associated with it, in the opinion of M. 

 Deshayes, in consequence of the large number of Calcaire Grossier fos- 

 sils which had evidently lived within the period of their deposition : 

 — **With the Sables Moyens," observes M. Deshayes, "terminates, 

 in the Paris Basin, a long period during which there is no appear- 

 ance of any violent interruption from great convulsions. The beds 

 succeed each other regularly, and, whilst the lower sands are united 

 with the Calcaire Grossier by many common species, so is the 

 Calcaire Grossier connected with the Sables Moyens in a similar 

 manner." At this point, however, a change occurs, and M. Des- 

 hayes cites the opinion of M. Elie de Beaumont, that everything 

 below the gypseous deposits is in the lower section of the Tertiary or 

 the Eocene, and everything above it, up to the Fontainebleau sands, 

 in the middle section or Miocenes ; but, after carefully examining 

 the fossil evidence, and noting the extraordinary analogy between 

 the fauna of the Fontainebleau sands and that of the Calcaire Gros- 

 sier, he declares that the analogy is greater than between the Fon- 

 tainebleau sands and any other member of the Tertiary series, and 

 that they must be considered as appendages to the Eocene, rather 



