CHAP. VI.] GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL CHANGES. 



95 



totally distinct series of facts. In almost every period of geology, 

 and in all the continents which have been well examined, there 

 are found lacustrine, estuarine, or shore deposits, containing the 

 remains of land animals or plants, thus demonstrating the con- 

 tinuous existence of extensive land areas on or adjoining the 

 sites of our present continents. Beginning with the Miocene, 

 or Middle Tertiary period, we have such deposits with remains 

 of land-animals, or plants, in Devonshire and Scotland, in 

 France, Switzerland, Germany, Croatia, Vienna, Greece, North 

 India, Central India, Burmah, North America, both east and 

 w^est of the Rocky Mountains, Greenland, and other parts of 

 the Arctic regions. In the older Eocene period similar forma- 

 tions are widely spread in the south of England, in France, and 

 to an enormous extent on the central plateau of North America ; 

 while in the eastern states, from Maryland to Alabama, there 

 are extensive marine deposits of the same age, which, from the 

 abundance of fossil remains of a large cetacean (Zeuglodon), 

 must have been formed in shallow gulfs or estuaries where 

 these huge animals were stranded. Going back to the Creta- 

 ceous formation we have the same indications of persisting lands 

 in the rich plant-beds of Aix-la-Chapelle, and a few other locali- 

 ties on the continent, as well as in coniferous fruits from the 

 Gault of Folkestone ; while in North America cretaceous plant- 

 beds occur in New Jersey, Alabama, Kansas, the sources of the 

 Missouri, the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico to the Arctic 

 Ocean, Alaska (British Columbia), California, and in Greenland 

 and Spitzbergen ; while birds and land reptiles are found in 

 the Cretaceous deposits of Colorado and other western districts. 

 Fresh-water deposits of this age are also found on the coast 

 of Brazil. In the lower part of this formation we have the 

 fresh-water Wealden deposits of England, extending into France, 

 Hanover, and Westphalia. In the older Oolite or Jurassic 

 formation we have abundant proofs of continental conditions in 

 the fresh-water and "dirt "-beds of the Purbecks, in the south 

 of England, with plants, insects and mammals; the Bavarian 

 lithographic stone, with fossil birds and insects ; the earlier 

 " forest marble " of Wiltshire, with ripple-marks, wood, and 

 broken shells, indicative of an extensive beach; the Stones- 



