PART II. CHAPTER XV. 



199 



Ancient Submergence of South of Europe Terminology. 



We learn from the researches of M. M. Bohlaye, and Virlet, 

 that the cretaceous system in the Morea, is composed of compact 

 and lithographic limestones of great thickness ; also of granular 

 limestones, with jasper ; and in some districts, as in Mess^enia, 

 a puddingstone, with a siliceous cement more than 1600 feet in 

 thickness, belongs to the same group.* 



It is evident, observe these geologists, from the great range 

 of the hippurite and nummulite limestone, that the South of 

 Europe was occupied at the cretaceous period by an immense 

 sea, which extended from the Atlantic Ocean into Asia, and com- 

 prehended the southernmost part of France, together with Spain, 

 Sicily, part of Italy, and the Austrian Alps, Dalmatia, Albania, 

 a portion of Syria, the isles of the ^gean, coasts of Thrace, and 

 the Troad. 



In proportion, therefore, as we enlarge the sphere of our re- 

 searches, we may find in the strata of one era, the mineralogical 

 counterparts of the rocks, which, in a single country like Eng- 

 land, may characterise successive periods. Thus, the grits, 

 sandstone, and shale with coal, of the Pyrenees have actually 

 been mistaken by skilful miners for the ancient carboniferous 

 group of England and France. In like manner the cretaceous 

 red marl and salt of northern Spain have been regarded as the 

 same as our new red and saliferous sandstone ; and the litho- 

 graphic limestone of the Morea might be confounded with the 

 oolite of Solenhofen in Germany. 



The beginner, perhaps, on hearing these facts, may object to 

 the term cretaceous, as applied to the rocks of the southern re- 

 gion in which there is no chalk. But the term green-sand 

 would hav6 been equally inappropriate as a general name for 

 this group ; and that of hippurite and nummulite limestone, how- 

 ever well suited to the Mediterranean region, would be inappli- 

 cable to the chalk of the north. Scarcely any designation would 

 remain unexceptionable as we enlarge the bounds of our know- 

 ledge, and we must therefore be content to retain many ancient 

 names, as simply expressing the mineral or palesontological cha- 

 racters of rocks in the country where they were first studied. 



* Bull, de la Soc. Geoi. de France, torn. iii. p. 149. 



