183 PLIOCENE AND MIOCENE FOEMATIONS, ETC. [Ch. XIV 



quadricostatus, Say (see fig. 165), and Venus tridamoides, abundant in 

 these same formations, but also some shells which, like Fulgur carica oi 

 Say and I^. canaliculatus (see fig. 164), Calyptrcea costata^ Venus merce- 

 naria. Lam., Modiola glandula, Totten, and Pecten magellanicus, Lara., 

 are recent species, yet of forms now confined to the western side of the 

 Atlantic, — a fact implying that some traces of the beginning of the pres- 

 ent geographical distribution of mollusca date back to a period as remote 

 as that of the Miocene strata. 



Of ten species of zoophytes which I procured on the banks of the 

 James River, one was formerly supposed by Mr. Lonsdale to be identical 

 with a fossil from the faluns of Touraine, but this species (see fig. 166) 

 proves on re-examination to be different, and to pig. lee. 



agree generically with a coral now living on 

 the coast of the United States. With respect 

 to chmate, Mr. Lonsdale regards these corals as 

 indicating a temperature exceeding that of the 

 Mediterranean, and the shells would lead to sim- 

 ilar conclusions. Those occurring on the James 

 River are in the 37th degree of N. latitude, 

 while the French faluns are in the 4'7th ; vet 



,-, (, />ji A • i» •! 7 1 *^ 1 Astrangialinerita,'Lor\5^ii\(i. 



the lorms ot the American lossils wouid scarcely Syn. Anthophyiium Uneatum. 

 imply so warm a climate as must have prevailed Wiiiiamsbai-h, Virginia, 

 in France when the Miocene strata of Touraine originated. 



Among the remains of fish in these Post-Eocene strata of the United 

 States are several large teeth of the shark family, not distinguishable 

 specifically from fossils of the faluns of Touraine. 



India. — Sewdlik Hills. — The freshwater deposits of the sub-Hima- 

 layan or Sewalik Hills, described by Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley, 

 belong probably to some part of the Miocene period, although it is diffi- 

 cult to decide this question until the accompanying freshwater and land- 

 shells have been more carefully determined and compared with fossils of 

 other tertiary deposits. The strata are certainly newer than the num 

 mulitic rocks of India, and, like the faluns of Touraine, they contain the 

 genera Deinotheriiim and Mastodoji, with which are associated no less 

 than seven extiDci; species of elephants. The presence of a fossil giraffe 

 and hippopotamus, genera now only living in Africa, and of a camel, an 

 inhabitant of extensive plains, implies a former geographical state of 

 things strongly contrasted with what now prevails in the same region. 

 A species of Atwj^Iotheriwn [A. poster ogeniiim) forms a link between 

 this fauna and that of the Eocene period ; yet, on the whole, the Sewalik 

 mammalia have a more modern aspect than those of the Upper Eocene, 

 so many being referable to existing genera, whereas almost every Eocene 

 genus is extinct. Moreover, the sub-Himalayan fauna exhibits a great 

 development of the Ruminants, an order so feebly represented in the 

 Eocene period. In addition to the camel and giraffe already alluded to, 

 we have here the huge Sivatherium, a ruminant bigger than the rhi- 

 noceros, and provided with a large upper hp, if not a short proboscis, and 



