Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/830

This page needs to be proofread.
816
PALÆOTHERIUM
PALAFOX Y MELZI

816 PALJEOTHERIUM PALAFOX Y MELZI TABULAE AEEANGEMENT OF THE GEOLOGICAL FOEMATIONS (continued). PALAEOZOIC. TJPPEK CAMBRIAN (Sedg.), or LOWER 8ILUBIAN (MllT.). Shawangunk or Oneida con- glomerate. Non-fossiliferous limit between Silurian and Cambrian systems. Hudson river group. Sandstone and shales. Calcareous shales. Do. and limestones. Utica slate. Marine plants, graptolites, crinoidea, bryozoa, and brachiopoda abundant. True corals few. Lamellibranchiata in some localities abundant. Gas- teropoda, cephalopoda, and Crustacea common. Trenton group. Trenton and Galena, Black river, and Birdseye limestones. Marine plants, crinoidea, cystidea, bryozoa, brachiopoda. Cephalopoda (orthoceras) and Crustacea abundant. Lamellibranchiata and gasteropoda common. Corals few. MIDDLE CAMBRIAN. Taconic system of Emmons. (Quebec group of Logan.) Chazy limestones. Levis shales and sandstones. Crystalline limest's (marbles). Dolomitic conglomerate. Calciferous sandstone. Graptolites, crinoidea, and cystidea. Brachiopoda. Some mollusca and many trilobites. LOWEB CAMBRIAN. Potsdam group. Graptolites. Crustacea (trilobites) abundant. Brachiopoda in linguloid and oboloid forms abundant. Sandstones, slates, &c. Braintree, Mass., St. John, N. B., and Newfoundland. Crustacea. Genus paradoxides and other primordial forms. Crustacea in numerous trilobites of the genera paradoxides, conocorypke, agnostus, and others.

HURO- NIAN. Sandstones, conglomerates, shales, and limestones. Specular iron ores. Crystalline and subcrystalline ; non-fossiliferous so far as known. ^ H ti Labradoritic rock. Crystalline limestones. Gneiss in great variety, with iron ores. Highly crystalline, and for the most part non-fossiliferous. The serpentine limestones contain the fossil called eosoon, the organic nature of which is advocated by some and disputed by others. PALDOniERIOI (Cuv. ; Gr. irafau6f, ancient, and Ofoiov, animal), the type of a tribe of fossil ungulates belonging to the family of perissodactyla (Owen), or those having an un- even number of toes, intermediate between the tapir and the rhinoceros. The form was like that of the tapir; the raised nasals show that it had a small flexible proboscis ; the feet were Palaeotherium (restored). three-toed; it had projecting canines, and mo- iars I , the upper like those of the rhinoceros, the first smallest and single lobed, and the low- <er formed by two successive crescents with their conyexity external, the first single and the last one trilobed. Several species are de- scribed by Cuvier and others, of which the largest and best known is the P. magnum (Cuv.), of the size of a horse, but of a stouter form ; others vary in size from that of a hog and sheep to that of a hare. They belong espe- cially to the gypsum of Europe (eocene), are abundant in the plaster quarries of Montmartre, near Paris, and extend even into the lower miocene ; the species differ little, except in size. PALAFOX Y MELZI, Jose, a Spanish patriot, born in Aragon in 1780, died in Paris, Feb. 16, 1847. At an early age he became an officer of the royal body guard, and as such accompanied Ferdinand VII. to Bayonne in 1808. Ferdinand was retained a prisoner, but Palaf ox escaped to his estate near Saragossa. Shortly after that city was menaced by the French army under Lefebvre-Desnouettes, and the populace pro- claimed Palaf ox captain general of Aragon (May 25). Soldiers from the adjacent country were called into the city, barricades were erected in every street, and nearly every house was made a point of defence. After a siege of 61 days the French retired ; but they returned in great- er force successively under Moncey, Mortier, Junot, and Lannes, and the city capitulated in February, 1809. Palafox, being ill, was not in active command at the time. The capitulation provided that he should depart free, and that no one should be molested ; but the city was pillaged, blood was profusely shed, and Pala- fox was sent a prisoner to Vincennes. He was only released on the restoration of Ferdinand