Part IV. Sror. iv.§ 2.) | PLIOCENE. 877 
2. Belvedere-Schotter—a coarse conglomerate or gravel of quartz and other 
pebbles, occasionally yielding bones of large mammals; Belyedere-sand— 
a yellow micaceous sand, forming the lower member of the zone and con- 
taining in its more compact portions abundant. terrestrial leaves. These 
strata resemble part of the alluvia of a large river. Their name is taken 
from the Belvedere in Vienna, where they are well developed. 
1. Inzersdorf Tegel—a tolerably pure clay reaching a depth of often more 
than 300 feet. This deposit, the youngest Tertiary layer that is widely 
distributed over the Vienna basin, points to continued and general sub- 
mergence. The facies of its fossils, however, shows that the water no 
longer communicated freely with the open sea, but seems rather to have 
partaken of a Caspian character. Among the conspicuous’ molluscs are 
Congeria subglobosa, OC. Partscht, CO. triangularis, C. spathulata, C. Czjzeki, 
Cardium carnuntinum, C. apertum, C. conjungens, Unio atavus, U. moravicus, 
Melanopsis martiniana, M. impressa, M. vindobonensis, M. Bouéi. ‘The 
mammals include Mastodon longirostris, M. angustidens, Deinotherium gigan- 
teum, Acerothertum incisivum, Hippotherium gracile, antelope, pig, Machai- 
rodus cultridens, Hyxna hipparionum. The flora includes, among other 
plants, conifers of the genera Glyptostrobus, Sequoia, and Pinus, also species 
of birch, alder, oak, beech, chestnut, hornbeam, liquidambar, plane, willow, 
poplar, laurel, cinnamon, buckthorn, with the Asiatic genus Parrotia, the 
Australian proteaceous Hakea (Fig. 416), and the extinct tamarind-like 
Podogonium. 
In other parts of the Austro-Hungarian empire interesting evidence 
exists of the gradual uprise of the sea-floor during later Tertiary time 
and the isolation of detached areas of sea, so that the south-east of Hurope 
_ must then have presented some resemblance to the great Aralo-Caspian 
depression of the present time. The Congeria stage brings before us the 
picture of an isolated gulf gradually freshening, hke the modern 
Caspian, by the inpouring of rivers; but on both sides of the Carpathian 
range there were bays nearly cut off from the main body of water, and 
exposed to so copious an evaporation without counterbalancing inflow 
that their salt was deposited over the bottom. Of the Transylvanian 
localities on the south side of the mountains the most remarkable is 
Parajd, where a mass of rock-salt has been accumulated having a 
maximum of 7550 feet in length, 5576 feet in breadth, and 590 feet in 
depth, and estimated to contain upwards of 10,595 millions of cubic feet. 
On the northern flank of the Carpathians near Cracow lie the famous and 
extensive salt-works of Wieliczka, with their massive beds of pure and 
impure rock-salt, gypsum, and anhydrite, some of the strata being full 
of fossils characteristic of the upper zones of the Vienna basin. 
The south-east of Europe during later Tertiary time was the scene of 
abundant volcanic action, and the outpourings of trachyte, rhyolite, 
basalt, and tuff were specially abundant over the low districts to the 
south of the Carpathian chain. 
Italy.—In this country Pliocene deposits are so extensively developed 
that they may be taken as a typical series for Europe. ‘They form a 
range of low hills flanking both sides of the Apennine chain, and hence 
have been termed the “sub-Apennine series.” They attain a thickness 
of upwards of 3000 feet, being most massive towards the south. They 
have been grouped into two divisions, the older consisting of blue marls 
and clays, sometimes calcareous, the upper of yellowish sands. In Sicily 
a threefold subdivision has been made out by Seguenza, who has traced 
the same arrangement throughout a large part of the mainland. The 
stages are in descending order :! 
1 Bull. Soc. Géol. France, 2e sér. xxy. 465, 
