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The upper beds in this section probably correspond with parts of the great gypseous formation; and the lower beds of red sandstone conglomerate and fossiliferous limestone no doubt are the equivalents of the Hippurite stratum, seen in descending from Arqueros to Pluclaro, which there lies conformably upon the porphyritic conglomerate formation. The fossils found in the third bed, consist of:
Some of these bones have been rolled as if partially subjected to the action of water, and may have been introduced by streams through rents in the Hippurite limestone; but there is now no running water in the neighbourhood, no river such as the hippopotamus might frequent, not even a small brook, so that the physical geography of the district must have been altogether changed since the time when such remains were swept into fissures, or into the channels of engulfed rivers.
Dr. Geologists have long been familiar with the fact that on the northern coast of Sicily, between Termini on the east, and Trapani on the west, there are several caves containing the bones of extinct animals. These caves are situated in rocks of Hippurite limestone, a member of the Cretaceous series, and some of them may be seen on both sides of the Bay of Palermo.
The remarks given on the several foregoing shells, show that, in M. d'Orbigny's opinion, the Pecten, Ostrea, Turritella, and Hippurite indicate the cretaceous period; and the Gryphaea appears to Professor Forbes to be identical with a species, associated in Southern India with unquestionably cretaceous forms.
The flutings on the interior of the Hippurite, which are represented on the cast by smooth, rounded longitudinal ribs, and in some individuals attain a great size and length, are wholly unlike the markings on the exterior of the shell.
Or, in the absence of these long-extinct forms, has a single spiral univalve, or species of Cretaceous Gasteropod, been found living? Or, to descend still lower in the scale, has some characteristic Cretaceous genus of Lamellibranchiate Bivalve, such as the Inoceramus, or Hippurite, foreign to the Tertiary seas, been proved to have survived down to our time?
Hippurite Limestone. Cretaceous Rocks in the United States. We have treated in the preceding chapters of the Tertiary or Cainozoic strata, and have next to speak of the Secondary or Mesozoic formations.
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