920 HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. 



Consequently, Mammalian life is mucli less perfectly represented in the 

 European Tertiary than in the North American. 



ROCKS — KINDS AND DISTRIBUTION. 



In England, beds of the Eocene occur in the London and Hampshire 

 basins, resting on the Chalk. The Lower Eocene consists of beds of sand, 

 with marine fossils called the Thanet sands, with some clay-beds above, and 

 the London Clay, an estuariue deposit, 500 feet in maximum thickness, which 

 has afforded mau}^ species of fossil leaves and Eocene Mammals, besides 

 marine shells. The Middle and Upper Eocene consist of marine fossil- 

 iferous sands called the Bagshot beds, with some leaf-bearing clay-beds. 

 Among the fossils occur some Xummulites, species that were abundant 

 farther south over Europe. 



In northern France and Belgium there is a general resemblance in the 

 Eocene strata to those of the British part of the London-Paris basin. The 

 Lower are clay-beds, marlytes, and sand-beds, partly marine, but containing 

 in some parts Plants and Mammals. The Middle Eocene in France consists 

 largely of a coarse limestone, the Calcaire grossier, partly glauconitic and 

 Nummulitic ; and the Upper is a series of sand-beds, sandstones, and marls, 

 with some limestones, having at top a bed containing gypsum 100 to 160 feet 

 thick, containing in some layers nodules of opal-silica (menilite). 



In southern Europe the Eocene beds are largely Is^ummulitic limestones 

 of great thickness ; and they range widely from southern France, the 

 Pyrenees, and Spain, over much of the region, eastward to Asia Minor and 

 beyond, indicating a pure sea of great extent. The Nummulitic beds are 

 3000 feet thick in southern France. In the Alps they constitute the summits 

 of the Dent du Midi, 10,531 feet, of Diablerets, 10,670 feet in elevation, 

 and of other heights. They occur in the Apennines and the Carpathians. 

 They extend into Egypt (where the Pyramids were in part made of iSTum- 

 mulitic limestone) ; also through Algeria and Morocco, parts of Asia Minor, 

 Persia, Caucasus, India, the mountains of Afghanistan, the southern slopes 

 of the Himalayas, and to a height of 20,000 feet in middle Tibet. They 

 occur also in Ja^Dan, on Luzon in the Philippine Islands, and in Java. 



OUgocene beds of alternate salt and fresh water origin are found in the 

 Isle of Wight and the Hampshire basin. In the Paris basin, in France, 

 they are largely of freshwater origin. They include the Gres de Fontaine- 

 bleau in the Paris basin, and below, marlytes, with gypsum, affording remains 

 of Mammals at the quarries of Montmartre. They have wide distribution in 

 north Germany, and hold in the lower part beds of brown coal with remains 

 of plants. In Switzerland they constitute the loAver lacustrine part of the 

 sandstone formation called Molasse, having a thickness of 7000 feet. The 

 beds called Flysch are at the base of the Oligocene. 



Miocene Tertiary beds are not recognized in England or in the Paris 

 basin, and are mostly confined to scattered areas which are only in part 



