3 1 8 PREHISTORIC E UROPE. 



dicranios, C. pectinatus, etc. — a fauna, in short, comparable with 

 that of Leffe and Borlezza. Now, without going so far as to say 

 that the beds of " Sansino " may be of fluvio-glacial origin, their 

 occurrence is at least suggestive of powerful aqueous erosion 

 and transport. And the fact that they are so closely associated 

 with beds containing the same fauna as that of the interglacial 

 deposits referred to is not without its significance, as indeed Dr. 

 A. Julien pointed out some years ago. Before leaving the subject 

 of Italian Pleistocene, I may note the discovery at Olmo, in the 

 plain of Arezzo, of the human skull referred to at page 22. It 

 was found in a bed of blue clay underneath a layer of lignite, 

 over which came blue clay of the same character as the bed 

 below. Above the whole are beds of sand. The blue clays 

 contained many freshwater-shells — all of living species — and 

 the upper one yielded a tooth of Elephas meridionalis. In the 

 overlying sandy deposits were discovered remains of Cervus 

 megaceros, Equus caballus, and other well-known Pleistocene 

 forms. 1 The skull thus pertains to Pleistocene times — to 

 the period during which Elephas meridionalis belonged to the 

 European fauna. 



At the hill of Perrier, near Issoire, in the valley of the Allier, 

 are found certain interesting sections, the meaning of which was 

 first ascertained by Dr. A. Julien. 2 Deposits of Miocene and 

 Pliocene age are here found overlaid by a thick "pumiceous 

 conglomerate," the contents and character of which betray its 

 glacial origin. It is composed of a heterogeneous aggregation of 

 large and small fragments of different kinds of rock, embedded 

 in a yellowish loam which weathers very readily, the loam dis- 

 appearing with every shower of rain, and leaving behind the 

 sand, grit, gravel, and blocks which it contained. The size of 

 the blocks is considerable. Bravard measured one of more than 

 6000 cubic metres, and Julien mentions another which had a 



1 Cocchi : L'uomo fossile nelT Italia centrale, Mem. della Soc. Ital. di Scienze 

 naturali (1867) ; Forsyth-Major, Archiv. per Antropologia e la Etnologia, vol. 

 vi. p. 228. 



2 Des Phenomenes Glaciaires dans le Plateau Central de la France, etc., 1869. 



