JURASSIC OF THE PAEIS BASIN". 



535 



valley of the Tonne there is no oolite to compare with the Euro 

 Oolite ; but the fossiliferous beds here correspond in character and 

 fossils to the limestones of Trannes, and therefore to the " carious 

 limestones." It is also possible that, from the unevenness of the 

 jNeocomian denudation, portions of the higher zone, or " spotted lime- 

 stones," may be represented, as at Villefargeau ; but the series is 

 certainly incomplete in its upper part; and the question of any passage 

 here into the jNTeocomian, which De Loriol propounds (42), cannot 

 possibly be seriously raised. The lower portion of the " Portlandian " 

 rocks is well seen on either side of the Yonne valley, where quarries 

 occur with a 40-feet face of a soft chalky limestone with intervening 

 beds of marl, in which there is occasionally a lumachelle of Exogyra 

 virgula. Some of the marls contain abundance of Thracia depressa ; 

 and the other fossils noted were Amm. gigas, A. suprajurensis, A. 

 Oravesianus, Plectomya rugosa, Cyjprina Brongniarti (in another 

 quarry), and Pinna granulata. These beds correspond in position to 

 the lithographic limestones of Joinville. The beds in this locality 

 have a gentle rise to the south, and the sequence can be well taken 

 up again near Yincelles and Bailly. The tops of the hills (i here are 

 occupied by the " Portland " limestone, beneath which come earthy 

 fossiliferous limestones with large examples of Terebratula subsella 

 and Pholadomya multicosta, which graduate downwards into marls 

 full of Exogyra virgida. The Astartian beds are not well seen in 

 any section; but they consist partly of solid and partly of rubbly lime- 

 stones, with bands of Terebratula Leymerii, containing Plectomya 

 rugosa. Towards the base the beds become oolitic, then nodular, 

 then bedded; then comes a 16-feet mass of brownish oolite* with Rhyn- 

 chonella pinguis, then 2 feet of solid limestone. Below this comes 

 an 8-feet block of solid character, here and there containing the 

 peculiar pisolite of the Diceras-beds, which forms the cap to a mass 

 of white limestones, varying from oolitic to chalky, . and containing 

 Ceromya excentrica, Homomya compressed , Nerincea jpseudospeciosa? , 

 Corbis gig antea, Trig onia Etalloni, T. variegata, Pecten Tombecki, and, 

 perhaps, Cidaris florigemma. The series thus described is ob- 

 viously identical with that seen at Tonnerre, with the exception 

 that there are no beds of rolled corals over the Diceras-beds. The 

 white limestones extend some way' to the south, where they are 

 succeeded by lithographic limestones. The basement has not been 

 seen, but is stated by Cotteau (42) to contain Rhynchonella coral- 

 Una, Terebratula humeralis, and Pholadomya paucicosta. At Mailly- 

 la-ville are seen some 20 or 30 feet of very flaggy beds, succeeded 

 by 12 feet of oolite, and then a development of the most extraor- 

 dinary kind, totally different from any thing seen before and of great 

 interest. Along the banks of the Yonne are fine hoary cliffs, 

 composed at first of a rock resembling a consolidated calc tuff, 

 without any stratification and weathering into peaks ; the fossils 

 are not so numerous as might be expected, though Pecten articidatus 



* Above this bed, Hebert (21) draws the line between the Coral Kag and the 

 Kimmeridge Clay. 



