446 LL. Lesquereux—Rocky Mountain. Lignitie Formation. 
Carboniferous, a permanence of the types of their flora, marked 
by a number of species identical in the groups even of the 
more remote stations. This answers the observations made on 
The Flysh or Eocene of Switzerland is mostly a compound 
of shales, here and there interlaid by sandstone strata of great 
thickness and even passing locally to massive sandstone, where 
the slate-beds disappear. " This formation extends all along the 
northern base of the Alpine chain in different degrees of thick- 
ness, in proportion to the amount of denudation to which it has 
been exposed. It enters the valleys, especially borders them, 
in constant and immediate superposition to the Cretaceous. 
On the northern base of the same chain, it is present, too, in 
basins of limited extent, where the Upper Cretaceous strata 
have been left for its support. The various strata of this Ho- 
cene formation are, according to their vicinity to primitive 
rocks, changed by heat to a certain degree. And the top of 
these measures is overlaid by a conglomeratic compound of ma- 
terials derived from rocks of all the older formations, all rolled peb- 
bles, and in pieces varying tn size from that of a walnut to that of 
the fist.* In this formation, too, valuable beds of lignite are 
found; and these, though not as richly developed as in the 
Kocene of this continent, have sometimes a thickness of 6 feet, 
and have furnished combustible materials for a long time. The 
lignite of Niederhorn, 5,700 feet above the sea, has been wo ked 
since the former century, and is now used at Bern for the pro 
duction of illuminating gas. The Eocene group of the hae’ 
asin has also some rich beds of lignite. Does not this ‘ ki 
like a true epitome of the descriptions given of our Hocene 
This brings forward again what I consider the last bet 
answered question in relation to the distribution of the + 
can Eocene. Its base is everywhere ascertained as immediate a 
resting upon the Upper Cretaceous; the lower sandstone Fe 
recognized as either a massive homogeneous compound “The 
interlaid at different places by beds of lignite or of shale. 
* Herr Urwelt der Schweitz, p. 241. 
