CHAPTER XVII

Summary

EOCENE FRESH-WATER FORMATIONS.

We have now traced back the history of the European formations to that period when the seas and lakes were inhabited by a few only of the existing species of testacea, a period which we have designated Eocene, as indicating the dawn of the present state of the animate creation. But although a small number only of the living species of animals were then in being, there are ample grounds for inferring that all the great classes of the animal kingdom, such as they now exist, were then fully represented. In regard to the testacea, indeed, it is no longer a matter of inference, for 1400 species of this class have been obtained from that small number of detached Eocene deposits which have hitherto been examined in Europe.

The celebrated Paris basin, the position of which was pointed out in the former part of this volume, (see wood-cut, p. 16) first presents itself, and seems to claim our chief attention when we treat of the phenomena of this era. But in order more easily to explain to the student the peculiar nature and origin of that group, it will be desirable, first, to give a brief sketch of certain deposits of Central France, which afford many interesting points of analogy, both in organic remains and mineral composition, and where the original circumstances under which the strata were accumulated may more easily be discerned.