THE MISS1SS1PPIAN PERIOD. 517 



it will be recalled, are in harmony with the phenomena of North America 

 (see p. 507), but the unconformity in Europe appears to be less wide- 

 spread than in North America. 



These unconformities are by no means the only indication of geo- 

 graphic changes at the close of the Lower Carboniferous, for both 

 the distribution of the Carboniferous proper and the character of its 

 formations point to great changes. The Carboniferous rocks are 

 present over considerable areas where the Lower Carboniferous appears 

 never to have been deposited, and they are absent from areas where 

 the earlier system is found. Furthermore, non-marine Upper Car- 

 boniferous formations succeed marine Lower Carboniferous, and vice 

 versa, over great areas. The succession first named obtains in western 

 Europe, and the second in eastern Europe. Great orogenic move- 

 ments began in western Europe at the close of the Lower Carboniferous, 

 and continued into the Permian. 1 These changes set off the Lower 

 Carboniferous from the Upper. 



Other Continents. — In other continents, where geological work is 

 less advanced, the Lower and Upper Carboniferous have not always 

 been carefully separated. The Lower Carboniferous system appears 

 to be somewhat widely distributed in North Africa, and to be present 

 in the southern part of the continent. 2 Lower Carboniferous formations 

 have been reported in Asia Minor, Persia, in the Kirghiz steppes in 

 Central Asia, in North China and elsewhere. Their faunas are of 

 European types, and the system sometimes carries coal. 



In Australia (Queensland and Victoria) and New Zealand, the 

 Lower Carboniferous consists of marine sedimentary beds which are 

 often much disturbed and metamorphosed, and associated with more 

 or less igneous rock. In western Australia the Lower Carboniferous 

 formations (1000 to 1300 feet) contain gypsum and salt. ' 



In South America the Lower Carboniferous is represented in south- 

 western Argentina by sandstone which contains some coal, and in 

 Chili. In other parts of the continent it has not generally been sepa- 

 rated from the Upper Carboniferous. 



1 Kayser, op. cit., pp. 174-5. 



2 Geikie, Text-book of Geol., Vol. II, 4th ed., p. 1056. 



