Gh. XIY.] mayexce basin. 243 



to find of Miocene date are those of lacustrine and volcanic origin, 

 such as the Bovey Coal in Devonshire, the Ardtun beds in Mull, or 

 the lignites and associated basalts in Antrim. 



MIOCENE FORMATIONS OF GERMANY. 



Mayenee basin. — An elaborate description has been published by 

 Dr. F. Sandberger of the Mayenee tertiary area, which occupies a 

 tract from five to twelve miles in breadth, extending for a great dis- 

 tance along the left bank of the Ehine from Mayenee to the neighbor- 

 hood of Manheim, and which is also found to the east, north, and 

 south-west of Frankfort. M. de Koninck, of Liege, first pointed out 

 to me that the purely marine portion of the deposit contained many 

 species of shells common to the Kleyn Spawen beds, and to the clay 

 of Eupelmonde, near Antwerp. Among these he mentioned Cassi- 

 daria depressa, Tritonium argutum, Brander (T. jlandricum, De Kon- 

 inck), Tornatella simulata, Aporrhais Soiverbyi, Leda Deshayesiana 

 (fig. 170, p. 237), Corbula pisum (fig. lTl), and Pectunculus terehra- 

 tularis. 



First, in the neighborhood of the above-mentioned strata of the 

 Mayenee basin are the sands of Eppelsheim, containing Dinotkerium 

 gigantewn, and other Falunian or Upper Miocene quadrupeds. Next, 

 the uppermost part of the Mayenee series consists of what is called 

 the Littorinella Limestone, which contains among other mammalia 

 Hippotherium gracile, Acerotherium (or Rhinoceros) incisivum Paleo- 

 meryx, and Chalicomys, all indicating a Lower Miocene fauna. 



The shell (fig. 177) from which the above-mentioned limestone is 

 named much resembles the recent Littorinella (or Rissoa) ulva. Each 

 shell is like a grain of rice in size, and they are often in j-jg. 177. 

 such quantity as to form entire beds of marl and lime- a a 

 stone, in stratified masses from fifteen to thirty feet in )**m ^ 

 thickness, just as in the Baltic modern accumulations >8o 

 several feet thick of the Littorinella ulva are spread far 

 and wide over the bottom of the sea. In the same beds, Paiudina. 

 several species of Dreissena abound, a form common to the Mayenee. 

 Headon or Upper Eocene beds of the Isle of Wight, as well as to the 

 existing seas. 



Among the plants obtained by M. Ludwig from argillaceous strata 

 of the Littorinella limestone series, are many which have a wide range 

 in the Miocene period, but two of them, says Heer, viz., Dryandroides 

 BanJcsicefolia and D. arguta, are characteristic of the Lower Miocene, 

 or of beds below the faluns or Marine Molasse of Switzerland. 



Next below the marls containing Cyrena semistriata, Cerithium 

 plicatum, C. margaritaceum, and C. Lamarckii* These marls, with 



* Sandberger Bulletin, torn, xvil p. 153. 1860. 



