OUTLINES OF GEOLOGY. 



45 



98. Among the organic remains there are found, in the 

 superior order, at least 50 species of terrestrial mammalia, 

 none of which belong to existing species. 



The most remarkable of these belong to the order of 

 pachydermata ; among these are — the deinotherium, the 

 largest of all terrestrial mammalia, and which, from its 

 analogy to the tapir, probably spent most of its life in the 

 water— several species of the mastodon — the extinct families 

 of palagotherium, anaplotherium, &c. Of birds and reptiles 

 there are several extinct species, belonging to existing 

 genera. Of fish, there are 100 species, many of which be- 

 long to extinct genera. 



99. The negative characters are, that in these formations 

 there have not been found any species of the families of 

 trilobite, orthocera, productus, inoceramus, catillus, ammo- 

 nite, or belemnite ; nor of vegetables, any calamite, lycopo- 

 dium, or cycada. 



100. The formations of the superior order are generally 

 calcareous, sandy, or marly ; they contain no localities of 

 the useful metals, and no mineral veins ; even of dissemi- 

 nated metallic sulphurets, none seem to be found, except in 

 the lowest coarse beds. The organic remains are rarely 

 petrified, and, in many cases, but little altered. 



101 The minerals of value are — some beds of lignite, 

 which may be used as fuel— the calcaire grossier of Paris, 

 which is an excellent building stone — plastic clays, fitted for 

 coarse pottery — gypsum, which is found in regular beds in 

 the Paris basin — septarise, found in nodules, in the London 

 clay, and used in the manufacture of the hydraulic cement, 

 called Roman. 



102. The best known localities of this order are, the ba- 

 sins of London, Paris, and the Isle of Wight, and the sub- 

 appenine hills. In these basins it never occurs at a high 

 level, and the strata are mostly nearly horizontal. In the 



