FOREIGN 483 



unconformably, is principally composed of andesitic tuffs. In 

 Montana the equivalent stage {Livingstone*) is 7000 feet thick 

 and unconformable with the Laramie. 



The Upper Cretaceous of the Pacific coast comprises the Chico 

 series, with a maximum thickness of 4000 feet. In Vancouver's 

 Island the Chico is coal-bearing. The faunal connections of the 

 Chico are with southern Asia, that series having very little in com- 

 mon with those of the interior region. The uppermost Cretaceous 

 is wanting along the Pacific coast, except for certain coal-bearing 

 beds in Washington, which appear to represent the Laramie. 



The Mesozoic era was closed in the West, as the Palaeozoic had 

 been in the East, by a time of great mountain making, and to this 

 movement is attributed the formation of most of the great Western 

 mountain chains. From the Arctic Ocean far into Mexico the 

 effects of the disturbance were apparent. The Rocky Mountains, 

 the Wasatch and Uinta ranges, the high plateaus of Utah and 

 Arizona, and the mountains of western Texas and Mexico date 

 from this time, though subsequent movements have greatly modi- 

 fied them. Vast volcanic disturbances accompanied the upheaval, 

 which was on a far grander scale than the Appalachian revolution. 



Foreign. — In South America the Cretaceous history is much 

 like that of the northern continent. The subsidence which inau- 

 gurated the Lower Cretaceous extended the sea over the north- 

 ern part of South America and covered northeastern Brazil, with 

 fresh-water deposits in central Brazil. All along the Cordillera, 

 from Venezuela to Patagonia, marine Cretaceous is found, but east 

 of the mountains, with the exceptions already noted, the system is 

 represented chiefly by non-marine sandstones. The faunal rela- 

 tions of the South American Lower Cretaceous are very intimate 

 with northern and western Africa. Gigantic volcanic activity went 

 on along the Cordillera in Mesozoic times ; in Chili and Peru the 

 marine Cretaceous is principally made up of stratified igneous ma- 

 terial, and the Andes contain the largest known area of Mesozoic 

 eruptives. The mountain-making upheaval probably came at the 

 close of the Cretaceous. 



In Europe, toward the end of the Jura, the sea retired from 



