524 CENOZOIC TIME — MAMMALIAN AGE. 



nees, Alps (to a height of 10,000 feet above the sea-level), Apennines, 

 and Carpathians ; they extend into Egypt (where the Pyramids 

 were in part made of Nummulitic limestone), through Algeria and 

 Morocco, over parts of Asia Minor, Persia, Caucasus. India, the 

 Mountains of Afghanistan, the southern slopes of the Himalayas, 

 and to a height of 16,500 feet in western Thibet. Later in the Ter- 

 tiary, the beds were much less generally marine and more limited 

 in extent, showing an approximation to the existing era in the con- 

 dition of the continents. Marine beds are not found either in the 

 London or Paris basins, though occurring near Tours and Bordeaux 

 in France, and in some other parts of Europe. In the Pliocene 

 epoch there was a limited return to marine strata in England ; the 

 beds occur as littoral deposits, called Crag, near Suffolk and Nor- 

 folk on the shores of the German Ocean. 



The diversity of the beds in the Tertiary period is well shown in the Paris 

 basin formation. There is, first, a bed of plastic clay with lignite, containing 

 in some places Oysters (O. bellovacina) and a few other marine species, and in 

 other layers lacustrine shells, along with bones of the earliest quadrupeds of the 

 age; second, a series of beds of coarse limestone (Calcaire Grossier) with green 

 marls, abounding in some parts in Nummulites and other Rhizopods; contain- 

 ing marine shells (over 500 species in all) in certain beds; a mingling of species 

 of Cerithium with fresh-water shells in others, and also bones of Mammals; 

 third, over this limestone, a siliceous limestone containing a few fresh-water 

 shells ; fourth, Gypseous marls, well displayed in the hill of Montmartre, the 

 great repository of the bones of Eocene Mammals explored by Cuvier, and con- 

 taining also remains of Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes, with a few fresh-water 

 shells ; fifth, sandstone, Gres de Fontainebleau, marine in origin, and regarded 

 as of the same age with the lower part of the Molasse of Switzerland; sixth, 

 Upper Lacustrine, or fresh-water beds. 



II. Life. 



In the European Eocene the fossils are all of extinct species ; in 

 the Miocene, 15 to 20 per cent, are living ; in the Older Pliocene, 

 40 to 50 per cent. ; in the Newer Pliocene, Norwich Crag, 90 per 

 cent. ; in the Sicily formation, 70 to 90 per cent. 



1. Plants. 



Protophytes were abundant, as in America ; the well-known 

 Infusorial beds of Bilin in Bohemia have a thickness of 14 feet, 

 and are fresh-water Tertiary. Planitz in Saxony is another similar 

 locality. 



The higher plants are mainly Angiosperms, Conifers, and Palms. 



The isle of Sheppey is famous for its fossil fruits, and among 



