1893.] 



Submergence of Western Europe, fyc. 



S3 



necessarily be one of the consequences of the sab mergence he suggests 

 — that it is such a sedimentation as would fall from the turbid waters 

 as they slowly advanced or rested, whilst [as they retreated those 

 portions of this sediment most exposed to the effluent currents would 

 be again swept away. As with the other phases of the rubble-drift, 

 the organic remains of this loess are those of a land surface only. 



In the South of France and inland, the author refers the Ossiferous 

 breccias of Nice, Antibes, Cette, Pedemar, and Santenay to one phase 

 of the Rubble-drift. At all these places, the breccia, which contains 

 the remains of the Mammoth, Woolly Rhinoceros, and other Quatern- 

 ary animals, occurs in fissures on isolated hills. In explanation of 

 their presence, it has been suggested that the bones are those of 

 animals which fell into the fissures while still open, or else that they 

 were remains brought together by predaceous animals. But neither 

 of these opinions can be correct, for no skeleton is found entire, no 

 bones in place, and none of the bones have been gnawed by Carnivora. 

 As Monsieur Gaudry also asks in discussing the facts presented by the 

 fissure on the "Montagne de Santenay" — a flat-topped hill near 

 Chalons-sur-Saone — " Why should so many Wolves, Bears, Horses, 

 and Oxen have ascended a hill isolated on all sides ? " The members 

 of the Geological Society present at the reunion at which this remark 

 was made seemed to agree that the animals had met their death by 

 drowning, but in what way was left indeterminate. 



Now in all these cases the fissures are in isolated hills with lower 

 lands around. At Nice the hill is 132 feet high, at Antibes, 250 feet, 

 and at Cette, which resembles on a small scale the rook of Gibraltar, 

 the hill rises 355 feet above the sea-level. Still more formidable are 

 the hills inland. Mont Pedemar rises to a height of 1128 feet, whilst 

 Santenay is 1640 feet high. Among the animal remains found in the 

 fissures are those of — 



pFelis 

 | Lynx 



5 Carnivores <J Wolf 

 I Hyaena 

 LBear 



{Lagomys 

 Hare 



2 Rodents 



{Mammoth 

 Rhinoceros 

 Wild Boar 

 Horse 

 rOx 



3 Ruminants < Deer 



L Antelope 



together with land shells of various living species. The breccia, which 

 is composed of sharp angular fragments of the local rocks imbedded in 

 a matrix of red clay or loam, is generally cemsnted by calcite. 

 The bones are mostly broken and splintered into innumerable 

 sharp fragments, and evidently are not those of animals devoured 

 by beasts of prey ; nor have they been broken by man. It is not pos- 



Q 2 



