CHAPTER XVI.

EOCENE FORMATIONS--_continued_.

Subdivisions of the Eocene group in the Paris basin--Gypseous series--Extinct quadrupeds--Impulse given to geology by Cuvier's osteological discoveries--Shelly sands called sables moyens--Calcaire grossier--Miliolites--Calcaire siliceux--Lower Eocene in France--Lits coquilliers--Sands and plastic clay--English Eocene strata--Freshwater and fluvio-marine beds--Barton beds--Bagshot and Bracklesham division--Large ophidians and saurians--Lower Eocene and London Clay proper--Fossil plants and shells--Strata of Kyson in Suffolk--Fossil monkey and opossum--Mottled clays and sand below London Clay--Nummulitic formation of Alps and Pyrenees--Its wide geographical extent--Eocene strata in the United States--Section at Claiborne, Alabama--Colossal cetacean--Orbitoid limestone--Burr stone 190