. Elements of geology, or, The ancient changes of the earth and its inhabitants as illustrated by geological monuments. Geology. On. XIV.] FALUNS OF TOURAINE. 213 towns of Dinan and Rennes, in Brittany. I have visited all the locali- ties above enumerated', and found the beds on the Loire to consist princi- pally of sand and marl,, in which are shells and corals, some entire, some rolled, and others in minute fragments. In certain districts, as at Doue, in the department of Maine and Loire, 10 miles of Saumur, they form a soft building-stone, chiefly composed of an aggregate of broken she
. Elements of geology, or, The ancient changes of the earth and its inhabitants as illustrated by geological monuments. Geology. On. XIV.] FALUNS OF TOURAINE. 213 towns of Dinan and Rennes, in Brittany. I have visited all the locali- ties above enumerated', and found the beds on the Loire to consist princi- pally of sand and marl,, in which are shells and corals, some entire, some rolled, and others in minute fragments. In certain districts, as at Doue, in the department of Maine and Loire, 10 miles of Saumur, they form a soft building-stone, chiefly composed of an aggregate of broken shells, bryozoa, corals, and echinoderms, united by a calcareous cement; the whole mass being veiy like the Coralline Crag near Aldborough and Sudbourn in Suffolk. The scattered patches of faluns are of slight thickness, rarely exceeding 50 feet; and between the district called Sologne and the sea they repose on a great variety of older rocks; being seen to rest successively upon gneiss, clayslate, various secondary for- mations, including the chalk; and, lastly, upon the upper freshwater limestone of the Parisian tertiary series, which, as before mentioned (p. 183), stretches continuously from the basin of the Seine to that of the Loire. At some points, as at Louans, south of Tours, the shells are stained of a ferruginous color, not unlike that of the Red Crag of Suffolk. The species are, for the most part, marine, but Fig. 162 a. a few of them belong to land and fluviatile genera. Among the former, Helix turo- nensis (fig. 45, p. 30) is the most abun- dant. Remains of terrestrial quadrupeds are here and there intermixed, belonging to the genera Deinotherium (fig. 162 a), Mastodon, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Chaeropotamus, Dichobune, Deer, and others, and these are accompanied by cetacea, such as the Lamantine, Morse, Sea-Calf, and Dolphin, all of extinct Species. Deinotherium giganUum, Kaup. Professor , after studying the fossil testacea which I obtainea from these beds,
Size: 1484px × 1684px
Photo credit: © Paul Fearn / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectgeology, bookyear1868
