FRANCE. 
211 
two divisions; the lower, or Diestian, representing our Coralline 
Crag and Lenliam Beds; the upper, or Scaldisian, equivalent to 
the lower part of the Bed Crag, or Walton Crag. The higher 
zones, preserved in Norfolk and Sulfolk, are at present unknown 
in Belgium and Holland. 
A wide interval separates the Pliocene strata of the Anglo- 
Belgian basin from the nearest marine deposits which can be 
referred to the same period. Correlation thus becomes much 
more difficult. The marine deposits of Cotentin, in Normandy, 
seem approximately to represent the Pliocene clays of St. Erth, 
in Cornwall. Both these are probably Older Pliocene, though 
belonging to the north European type of that series, and not to 
the Mediterranean basin. The next marine deposits met with 
are of the Mediterranean type, and we can no longer attempt 
any detailed correlation with the English Crags. Perhaps the 
character of the Pliocene strata of the south of France will be 
best understood from the following translation of the excellent 
account given by Prof A. de Lapparent.* 
The Miocene period was characterised by the wide expanse of 
the sea, which sent long tongues up the valleys of the Loire and 
Bhone, and covered parts of Switzerland and Austria. Thus 
Europe was transformed into a kind of Indian archipelago. At 
the commencement of the Pliocene period, as Prof, de Lapparent 
remarks, the geography of the Mediterranean region had under¬ 
gone a transient but considerable modification. The earliest 
deposits of this age tell of conditions more brackish-water than 
marine. Beds with Gongeria spread over various parts of Pro¬ 
vence, of Italy, and of Corsica, at the same time occupying 
considerable areas in eastern Europe, proving how at that time 
the Mediterranean did not extend be 5 ^ond the meridian of 
Sardinia, and that all its eastern part had given place to a series 
of Caspian Seas, on the borders of which large troops of herbi- 
vora ranged freely. But soon the contours of the region became 
more pronounced, the continuity of marine conditions became 
re-established, and the sea advanced, by long channels, beyond 
the present estuaries of our rivers, notably in the valley of the 
Bhone, where it formed a kind of fjord, of which the extremity 
reached the gates of Lyons, and in that of the Po, where it 
penetrated as far as Ivrea and Mondovi. During this epoch, in 
various parts of western Europe, imposing volcanic manifesta¬ 
tions prolonged the eruptive activity of the Miocene period. 
Under these influences, a climate relatively very mild permitted 
Europe to support a vegetation in which the types of the rich 
forests of the north are mingled with those of the Canary 
Islands, and of the borders of the Caucasian region. But the 
temperature sank little by little, at the same time that the sea 
retired; the flora became impoverished never to recover; the 
most delicate species migrated towards the south, and palms 
* Traite de Geologie, 9ud edit.. 8vo., 1885, pp. 1210-1211. 
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