OF NORTH AMERICA. 
67 
Tertiary formation. - The Tertiary rocks have been divided in America, as in Europe, into 
three principal groups, the Eocene, Miocene, and TKoceae formations. Of these three groups the Eo- 
cene formation alone is much developed in the United States, the other two arc limited to few lo- 
calities, and have not been thoroughly studied. The Tertiary rocks consist chiefly of beds of white, 
red, and green clay; ferruginous sand; pudding stone; and red and white sandstone. Fossils are 
abundant in some of these strata, and many are identical with those found in Europe on the same 
geological level; the principal are the following: Lucina rotunda", Venericardia Silliinanni; Ostrca semi— 
lunata, 0. Virginiana var. Californica; Natica striata", Fusus Fittoni; Valuta Vanuxemi; and Carcharodon 
nngustidens. 
In the Prairies of Nebraska Territory , near Fort Pierre, there is a large Eocene basin , known 
by the name of «Mauvaises Terres», or bad lands, containing an immense quantity of bones of 
mammalia and turtles, and other animals denoting a fresh water deposit. Hitherto, the mammalia 
found in the Tertiary formations of North America have been the following: Zeuglodon cetoides; Phoca 
Waymanni; Delphinus Conradi", Balcena palwatlantica ; Pwbrotherium Wilsonii", Agriocharus antiguus", Oreodon 
Culhertsonii , Or. gracilis-, Archmotherium Mortoni; Palceotherium giganteum-, Rhinoceros occidentalis , Rh. Ae- 
brascensis", and Machairodus primeecus. These mammalia belong to the Cetacea and the Pachydcrmata, 
with the exception of a carnivorous animal, the Macharoidus primeecus, resembling the American 
panther. The Clmlonians are all fresh Avater turtles. 
The geographical distribution of the Tertiary rocks is not complicated. They begin at Cape 
Cod, near Boston, include the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, Long Island, and the 
eastern coasts of the States of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Ca- 
rolina and Georgia, the northern part of Florida, the South of Alabama, the greater part of the 
State of Mississippi, and nearly half of the States of Arkans<as, Louisiana, and Texas. They cross 
the Rio Grande del Norte, between Laredo and Matamoras, and enter into Mexico. 
In the Central, or Rocky mountain region, the only Tertiary basin knoAvn is that extending 
from the Platte river to the .«Mauvaises Terres» and the Upper Missouri, with the exception of 
taceous formation; ho gives also a description of two fossils, Inoceramus confertirh annulatus, and Car^ 
dium multi-striatum, found by the Mormons somewhere in the Upper Green river country; see: Report 
of Explorations for the Pacific Railroad, on the line of the forty-first parallel of north latitude, by Lieut. E. 
G. Beckwith; page 126, 134, and 135, edition in 8°; Washington, 1854. 
But Dr. Schiel admits that the fossils found by him, which he calls Gryphaia Pitcheri and fragments 
of Ammonites, were not in situ and had been rolled and strewed over the ground on the top of a sand- 
hill; and farther he admits p. 135 that the determination of this shell, the Gryphcca Pitcheri, was due 
to James Hall, who regards the Gryphxa dilatata var. Tucumcarii as identical with the Gryphcca Pitcheri. 
This makes the indication of Cretaceous rocks on Grand river very problematic , and the Upper Green 
river country is east of the Sierra Madre of New Mexico. 
F. B. Meek (See: Trans. Albany Institute, vol. IV, p. 37.) has described fossils placed in his hands 
by Dr. J. S. Newberry from Vancouver’s island, as probably belonging to the Cretaceous formation, and 
Dr. J. B. Trask (See: Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences , 1854 — 1856.) has described Am- 
monites and Plagiostoma from Arbuckle Diggings, Shasta Co.; Chico creek; and los Angeles, California; 
that he refers to the Tertiary and Cretaceous epochs. I think that all these fossils belong to the Ju- 
rassic, and that these geologists are mistaken. 
