Numerous fossils of the Siwâlik type have also been found in Perim Island, in the Gulf of Cambay, and among these a species of _Dinotherium,_ a genus so characteristic of the Upper Miocene period in Europe. Older Pliocene and Miocene Formations in the United States.—Between the Alleghany Mountains, formed of older rocks, and the Atlantic, there intervenes, in the United States, a low region occupied principally by beds of marl, clay, and sand, consisting of the cretaceous and tertiary formations, and chiefly of the latter. The general elevation of this plain bordering the Atlantic does not exceed 100 feet, although it is sometimes several hundred feet high. Its width in the middle and southern states is very commonly from 100 to 150 miles. It consists, in the South, as in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina, almost exclusively of Eocene deposits; but in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, more modern strata predominate, of the age of the English Crag and faluns of Touraine.[1] Fig. 148: Fulgur canaliculatus. Fig. 149: Fusus quadricostatus. In the Virginian sands, we find in great abundance a species of Astarte (_A. undulata,_ Conrad), which resembles closely, and may possibly be a variety of, one of the commonest fossils of the Suffolk Crag (_A. Omalii_); the other shells also, of the genera _Natica, Fissurella, Artemis, Lucina, Chama, Pectunculus,_ and _Pecten,_ are analagous to shells both of the English Crag and French faluns, although the species are almost all distinct. Out of 147 of these American fossils I could only find thirteen species common to Europe, and these occur partly in the Suffolk Crag, and partly in the faluns of Touraine; but it is an important characteristic of the American group, that it not only contains many peculiar extinct forms, such as _Fusus quadricostatus,_ Say (see Fig. 149), and _Venus tridacnoides,_ abundant in these same formations, but also some shells which, like _Fulgur carica_ of Say and _F. canaliculatus_ (see Fig. 148), _Calyptræa costata, Venus mercenaria,_ Lam., _Modiola glandula,_ Totten, and _ Pecten magellanicus,_ Lam., are recent species, yet of forms now confined to the western side of the Atlantic—a fact implying that some traces of the beginning of the present geographical distribution of mollusca date back to a period as remote as that of the Miocene strata. Fig. 150: Astrangia lineata. Of ten species of corals which I procured on the banks of the James River, one agrees generically with a coral now living on the coast of the United States. Mr. Lonsdale regarded these corals as indicating a temperature exceeding that of the Mediterranean, and the shells would lead to similar conclusions. Those occurring on the James River are in the 37th degree of N. latitude, while the French faluns are in the 47th; yet the forms of the American fossils would scarcely imply so warm a climate as must have prevailed in France when the Miocene strata of Touraine originated.