Ixxiv PJiOCEEDIJSTGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



tinuation of the ^ Introduction a I'etude de la Paleontologie Strati- 

 graphique/ already published. It may also be considered as the 

 first application of the method recommended by him, and, strictly 

 speaking, as the commencement of his course of lectures, the object 

 of which is the exposition of the characters and of the distribution of 

 the fossil floras and faunas which have been successively developed 

 on the surface of the earth. In attempting to give a slight sketch 

 of this interesting work, I pass over the first lecture, which gives a 

 resume of the first portion of his course. The second lecture describes 

 the Quaternarj fauna of the eastern and central parts of Erance. 

 After alluding to the evidence of glacial action in the mountains of 

 the Yosges, the author states that the Quaternary deposits which fill 

 up the depression between these mountains and the parallel chain of 

 the Black Porest on the eastern border of the Ehine, consist of three 

 principal members. 



1. The ancient alluvium, or loess, forms the uppermost or most 

 recent member. 



2. Beneath this are beds of transported pebbles and blocks, 

 which, derived from the Vosges and the Black Eorest, are connected 

 with the glacial phenomena of those chains. 



3. These again rest on a deposit of rolled pebbles, designated as 

 the Alpine erratic deposit, or Alpine diluvium, occupying the bottom 

 of the great valley of the Ehine. 



These three deposits represent three successive epochs. The loess 

 is found on the flanks of the hills rising to a greater elevation in 

 proportion as we ascend the Bhine valley. At Bonn it is found at 

 an elevation of only 65 metres, between Heidelberg and Heilbron 

 at 260 metres, and on the flanks of the volcanic mountain of the 

 Kaiserstuhl it rises to the height of 400 to 450 metres. It contains 

 about 20 species of land and freshwater mollusca, most, if not all, 

 of which belong to living species. In its lower beds have been 

 found the bones of extinct Mammalia, ElepJias primigenius, Bhi- 

 noceros tichorhinus, Ox, Horse, and Deer. In the second deposit 

 have only been found a few species of freshwater shells, but in great 

 abundance. The third member or Alpine deposit is remarkable for 

 the great number of bones of extinct Mammalia found in it, in- 

 cluding, besides those just mentioned, Ursus spelceus, Hycena spelcea, 

 Cervus megaceros, Equus adamiticus, Bos priscus, and Cervus priscus. 



He then compares the loess of the Ehine with the old alluvium of 

 the north of France ; the second deposit is compared to certain por- 

 tions of the basin of the Seine, where beds of transported pebbles 

 and red sand without fossils are found ; and, lastly, the sands with 

 rolled pebbles forming the bottom of the plain of the Ehine are the 

 same as those which occupy the lower portions of the valleys of the 

 north of Erance and of Belgium, containing the same fossils and 

 offering the same physical characters, being exclusively composed 

 of the detritus of rocks which form the respective basins of each 

 depression. 



Eollowing this arrangement, the author describes the Quaternary 

 deposits of the diff'erent geological regions of Erance, giving full 



