Parr IV. Sxor. iii, §2.] | MIOCENE, 869 
these terrestrial trees and shrubs the stagnant waters of the time bore 
water-lilies, while their banks were clothed with reeds and sedges. 
When we remember that this vegetation grew luxuriantly within 8° 15’ 
of the North Pole, in a region which is in darkness for half of the year, 
and is now almost continuously buried under snow and ice, we can 
realize the difficulty of the problem in the distribution of climate which 
these facts present to the geologist. 
India.—The Oligocene and Miocene deposits of Europe have not 
been satisfactorily traced in Asia. As already stated, the upper part of 
the massive Nari group of Sind may represent some part of these strata. 
The Nari group is succeeded in the same region by the Gaj group 1000 
to 1500 feet thick, chiefly composed of marine sands, shales, clays with 
gypsum, sandstones, and highly fossiliferous bands of limestone. The 
commonest fossils are Ostrea multicostata, and the urchin Breynia cari- 
nata. Some of the species are still living, and the whole aspect of the 
fauna shows it to be later than Hocene time. The uppermost beds are 
clays with gypsum, containing estuarine shells and forming a passage 
into the important Manchhar strata. The Manchhar group of Sind 
consists of clays, sandstones, and conglomerates, sometimes probably 
10,000 feet thick, divisible into two sections, of which the lower may 
possibly be Miocene, while the upper may represent the Pliocene 
Siwalik beds (p. 879). Asa whole this massive group of strata is sin- 
gularly unfossiliferous, the only organisms of any importance yet found 
in it being mammalian bones, of which 22 or more species have 
been recognized. All of these occur in the lower section of the group. 
They include the carnivore Amphicyon palsindicus, three species of 
Mastodon, one of Deinotherium, two of Rhinoceros, also one of Sus, Chalico- 
therium, Anthracotherium, Hyopotamus, Hyotheriwm, Dorcatherium (two), 
Manis, a crocodile, a chelonian, and an ophidian.! 
North America.—The Yorktown group succeeds the Alabama 
- group (p. 853), and comprises strata of sand and clay, which extend over 
a large area in the seaward part of the eastern States. Their organic 
remains (comprising molluscs, with remains of sharks, seals, walruses, 
whales, &c.) show them to have been chiefly laid down in a shallow sea. 
Westward, in the Upper Missouri region, and across the Rocky Moun- 
tains into Utah and adjacent Territories, strata assigned to the same 
geological period have been termed the White River group. They were 
laid down in great lakes, and attain thicknesses of 1000 to 2000 feet. 
The organic remains of these ancient lakes, so well studied by Leidy, 
Marsh, and Cope, embrace examples of three-toed horses (Anchitherium, 
Miohippus, Mesohippus), tapir-like animals, differing from those of the 
older Tertiary strata (Lophiodon); hogs as large as rhinoceroses (Elo- 
thertum) ; true rhinoceroses (Rhinoceros, Hyracodon, Diceratherium), huge 
elephantoid creatures allied to the Deinoceras and tapir (Brontotherium, 
Titanotherium) ; also even-toed ruminant ungulates, some allied to the 
hog (Oreodonts), others like stags (Leptomeryx) and camels (Poébrotherium, 
Protomeryx); carnivores (Canis, Amphicyon, Machairodus, Hyzenodon), 
several of which are generically identical with European Tertiary 
wolves, lions, and bears. Among the smaller forms are the remains of 
the earliest known beavers (Palzocastor). 
1 Medlicott and Blanford’s Geology of India, p. 472. 
