third superior premolars have double internal cusps. Lissieu as studied by Depéret is mainly middle Eocene but it contains some important Upper Eocene forms, while Egerkingen has a rich representation of Upper Eocene types. The large L. rhinocerodes Rütimeyer, of Egerkingen is, however, not of the Heidenheim type because it has simple upper premolars associated with it; it is an older representative of the large race of Lophiodontida. Mauremont is considered mainly, if not exclusively, of Upper Eocene age. GENERAL CHARACTERS. (1). This fauna is much more modern than that of the Grès de Cisseras, or of the Calcaire Grossier and Issel; the great advance in the structure of the teeth especially seen in a comparison of Propalæotherium and Palæotherium is proof of modernization. Palæotherium is now the predominating type of Perissodactyl, although a large form of Lophiodon survives. (2). Secondly, the composite beds of Egerkingen and Lissieu furnish the ancestry of certain types of Gypse Artiodactyla and in these beds we also find certain other forms transitional between the Issel stage and the Gypse stage. (3). Thirdly, the Gypse, is a very highly specialized and differentiated fauna including many artiodactyls and other types the ancestry of which is known neither in Europe or America and has not thus far been found in Egerkingen or Lissieu. (4). Fourth, the Ligurien is widely distinct faunally from the American Upper Eocene or Uinta with which it has been heretofore paralleled. At no period of the Tertiary were the Nearctic and Palearctic faunæ so widely separated. In fact a much wider gap exists between Western America and Europe in the Upper Eocene than in the preceding Lower and Middle Eocene or in the succeeding lower Oliogocene. The resemblances or parallels with America are mostly limited to one genus of horses (Pachynolophus), which occur in both countries, to one Creodont Hyaenodon, and to the ancestors of the Canida and Viverride which occur in both countries. (5). Contrasts. The Cheiroptera and Insectivora of these two regions cannot be compared until the American forms named by Marsh are adequately studied. The Primates have no direct parallels. Among the Perissodactyla, Palæotherium, Palaplotherium, and Anchilophus have no parallels in America. The Selenodont Artiodactyla of the two continents are widely distinct; the Gypse selenodont Artiodactyla have no parallels in America. The bunodont Artiodactyla have not yet been carefully compared. (6). There are therefore comparatively few direct reasons for considering the Gypse and Uinta as nearly contemporaneous but there is a substantial indirect reason namely that they both closely underly Oligocene Beds in which there suddenly reappears a marked community of fauna in the Nearctic and Palæarctic regions. In other words the Gypse bears a relation to the Ronzon similar to that which the Upper Bridger bears to the Upper Uinta and White River. The most significant fact is the apparent invasion of the Palæarctic region in the Upper Eocene by a great variety of Artiodactyla which mingled with the older phyla of France and Germany. Where did these animals come from? Not from Asia, certainly, because some of them would have found their way also into the Nearctic, probably therefore from Africa or the Ethiopian Region. 9. Composite, Imperfectly Stratified Fissure Deposits of Middle Eocene to Middle Oligocene Age The most famous of these fissure deposits are those of Quercy, Egerkingen, Mauremont, Fronstetten. In the Swiss Jura are the Bohnerzen, mainly non-calcareous reddish clay nodules with pisolithic iron grains. The siderolithic earths, Siderolithiques, typically at Mauremont, found in Jurassic limestone fissures are so called because they contain grains of iron, imbedded in concretions probably of mineral spring origin, associated with travertines. A special type of fissure deposits, analogous to the above in certain respects are the Phosphorites, typically represented in Quercy but characteristic also of other periods. The age of these various deposits is a very important matter. For reasons given above and below certain of these deposits appear to have overlapped or extended through one or more periods of regular stratigraphic deposition as follows: Egerkingen (Canton Vaud) Middle to Upper Eocene ⚫ inclusive. Lissieu, Middle to Upper Eocene inclusive. Fronstetten (Swabian Alps), Mainly Upper Eocene. Mauremont (Canton Vaud) Oerlinger Thal. u. Eselsberg, Ulm, Upper Eocene. to Middle Oligocene. The PHOSPHORITES DU QUERCY, the most extensive and famous fissure deposits of this kind, occur in Jurassic calcareous fissures of 3 to 6 metres in width and 35 metres in length. The matrix is a phosphate of lime probably of mineral spring origin (FILHOL, '77, p. 1-27). The fauna enjoyed a warm and moist climate. FILHOL believes that death was caused by asphyxiation, due to poisonous vapors arising from hot springs, many skeletons being found complete and showing no marks of teeth. In contrast with Quercy, which contains a fauna of extraordinary richness, beauty and completeness, EGERKINGEN and LISSIEU have yielded merely isolated teeth. The Quercy fauna according to FILHOL predominates in Upper Eocene or Gypse types. The Phosphorite rhinoceroses have by some authors and in many museums been referred to A. lemanense and A. minutum, both of which are Upper Oligocene or Aquitanean species-this is an error; the two rhinoceroses which this formation contains are probably the Ronzotherium velaunum AYMARD, found also in Ronzon, and another species much simpler than the Aquitanean Diceratherium minutum Cuv. (R. pleuroceros DUVERNOY), of Moissac. This small species has simple upper premolars; it either belongs to A. gaudryi RAMES, or represents a distinct species. These facts with the tables published by FILHOL ('77) show that the Quercy deposition probably terminated in the lower or Middle Oligocene. Characteristic of the region of the Alps during elevation are the marine, brackish and freshwater molasses, that is, calcareous or argillaceous rocks easy to work, mingled with conglomerates called nagelfluh a littoral formation. These were produced in Switzerland on the shores of islands during oscillation periods. IV. OLIGOCENE OF EUROPE This Period is actually well defined in its geographical features, as well as in its fauna and flora; in France it begins typically with the Ronson fauna which contains a number of entirely new types, and it terminates with that of St. Gérand le Puy. Some authors, however, LYDEKKER ('96, p. 191), LEPSIUS ('92, p. 550), include within the lower Oligocene the Ligurien or Gypse; this is a cause of great confusion in the literature. The duration of the Oligocene may be estimated by deposits in Italy of 2900 metres in thickness. Earth Movements.-According to LAPPARENT ('85, p. 1164) the Oligocene of Europe begins with the main elevation of the Pyrenees and is marked toward the close by the initial elevation of the Alps. Its first or early earth movements (Étages Infra Tongrien and Stampien) caused a recession of the sea at the south, and an invasion of the sea from the north-this invasion reached the centre of France; in the Rhine valley it extended as far south as Basle. The climate during this period was moderate. The second or Étage Aquitanien was one of elevation and strongly contrasted with the preceding by a general recession of the sea; it instituted a period of great freshwater lakes in France and Southern Europe, varied by lagoons with lignitic deposits. Under more temperate climatic conditions, with considerable moisture, the flora was of Indian and Australian type, the deciduous trees increased in number, but palms still flourished as far north as the Baltic; the bird life of central France (Allier, MILNE-EDWARDS) was similar to that of the lakes of Southern Africa. Along certain lake borders however, in Southern France (Aix and Gargas, SAPPORTA), the heat and drought during the latter part of the summer were extreme. The Oligocene terminated by the deepening of valleys, drying of the lakes and substitution of the fluviatile régime of the Lower 1. Infra Tongrien, Lower Oligocene Ronzon was considered of Stampien age by LAPPARENT ('85, p. 1176); it is true the beds overlie the Calcaire de la Brie, which is undoubtedly lower Oligocene; GAUDRY accordingly places it in the Infra Tongrien, and its fauna certainly succeeds closely that of the Gypse. In 1881, M. FILHOL ('81, pp. 256–263) concluded that Ronzon, even after 30 years of exploration, could not be considered a locality typical of the French fauna of the period. Since 1881, however, considerable additions have been made to the Ronzon, fauna, so that now it must be considered fairly typical (see SCHLOSSER, '90). The animals which make their first appearance here are the anthracotheres (Anthracotherium said to be absent in Ronzon), the elotheres, Entelodon (Elotherium) and the rhinoceroses, Ronzotherium (Aceratherium), two new genera of dogs, Amphicynodon and Cynodon. Otherwise the fauna continues an evolution of that of the Gypse, being especially distinguished as the last stage in which the Paleotheride and the creodont Hyænodontidae occur. The marsupials are represented by Peratherium. Insectivores are represented by Tetracus. Among rodents we find representatives of the Anomaluride and Murida. The European parallels with the Marnes et Calcaires de Ronzon (100 metres) fauna are mainly the newer portion of the PHOSPHORITES. If M. FILHOL'S identification is correct in establishing the three genera, Leptomanis, Necromanis and Palæorycteropus, FILHOL ('93, p. 129), it is possible that during |