VI.

Upon minute investigation, Cuvier ascertained, that of the fossil remains, comprising seventy-eight diffe

rent quadrupeds, forty-nine are of species distinct from any, known to naturalists of the present day.' Eleven or twelve species are now known; and sixteen or eighteen belong to others bearing considerable resemblance to known species. He ascertained, also, that the remains

Organic Remains in the Upper Marine Formation in the Isle of Wight.

1 Vide the second volume of this work, p. 214, &c.

VOL. IV.

R

of oviparous animals are found in more ancient strata, than those of the viviparous class. From these data it would appear, that, in the formation of one hundred and ninety-six yards, being the depth from the top of the eleventh to the lowest point of the chalk, there have been no less than ten' geological epochs ; in which the sea appears to have twice covered that part of the globe; and twice retired from it.2

1 It is to be remembered that the third and fourth strata lie parallel with each other.

2 The laws, which associate the unknown species of animals with the strata in which they are imbedded, are thus developed.

"It seems clearly ascertained, that the remains of oviparous quadrupeds belong to more ancient strata, than those of viviparous quadrupeds. The crocodiles of Honfleur and of England are underneath the chalk. The lizards of Thuringia are still more ancient, if the slate in which they are contained is to be placed, as some mineralogists suppose, among the most ancient of the secondary formations."

"The earlier appearance of fossil bones seems to indicate, that dry land and fresh water existed before the formation of the chalk strata.-But it is not till we arrive at strata of a far more recent date, that we come to the fossil remains of mammiferous land quadrupeds.—We begin, indeed, to discover the bones of mammiferous sea animals, such as the lamantin and the seal, in the shell-limestone, which immediately covers the chalk strata in the neighbourhood of Paris; but no bones of mammiferous land animals are to be found in that formation, nor till we come to those, which lie over this limestone stratum: after which the bones of land quadrupeds are discovered in great abundance."

"Thus we are led to conclude, that the OVIPAROUS QUADRUPEDS began to exist along with the FISHES, at the commencement of the period, which produced the secondary formations, and that the land quadrupeds did not appear till long afterwards."

"There is also a determinate order observable in the disposition of the bones of this latter kind, with respect to the strata in which they are found. The genera, which are now unknown; as the palæotheria,

anaplo

VII.

Leaves of trees, trunks of bituminous wood, vast quantities of shells, with bones of fish and other marine animals, are perpetually found among the Sub-Apennines of Italy. On the sides of Monte Sarchio, between Rome and Naples, are found shells mixed with blue marl. Similar remains have been discovered in Monte Tabor. At the feet of the Ligurian mountains a tract of breccia is found, agglutinated scales of mica, and pieces of quartz, in which are imbedded shells, bivalve, and univalve; and a profusion of madrepores. Similar organic substances have been found on the Superga, near Turin; two thousand and sixty-four feet above the level of the sea; and along the Apennines overlooking Modena, Parma, Piedmont, and Placentia. In Modena, the waters of the wells spring from beds of gravel mixed with marine shells. These shells are more than sixty anaplotheria, &c. are found in the most ancient of the formations of which we now speak, or those which are directly over the coarse limestone.They are chiefly what occupy the regular strata, deposited from fresh water. Along with them are found some lost species of known genera, but in small numbers."

"The most remarkable of the unknown species belonging to known genera, as the fossil elephant, rhinoceros, and mastodonton are never found along with those more ancient genera; but are contained in alluvial formations of a later date, and never in the regular rocky strata.”

"Lastly, the bones of species, apparently the same with those now living on the earth, are never found, except in the very latest alluvial depositions, such as are either formed on the sides of rivers, or at the bottoms of ancient lakes, or marshes now dried up. These bones, though the most recent of all, from being nearest to the surface, are the worst preserved."-Cuvier.-Kerr.

feet in depth; and yet more than one hundred and thirty feet above the level of the Mediterranean.

VIII.

The shells, thus found, have a general analogy with each other; though many of them belong to species, long supposed to be natives of other oceans. Subsequent investigations, however, have proved, that many of those shell-fish, which have for ages been supposed to belong only to the Indian, African, and Northern Seas, the insulated recesses of the Caspian, the bays of Nicobar, and the coasts of South America, have not only been found in the neighbourhoods of Naples and Ravenna, but, as above described, imbedded in strata of blue marl in the bosom of the Sub-Apennines; sixty feet below successive strata of black earth mixed with vegetable substances.

On a hill, distant about twenty miles from Verona, are found stones, disposed in slates; which, being split, discover in each the half of a fish. Its species is known by the head, the eye, the spine, and the tail. Many of these were preserved in the collection of Vincenzio Bozza of Verona; who formed a collection of petrified fishes, taken from Mount Bolca : -some of which the Abbé Fortis identified with fishes on the coasts of Otaheite. The borders of Mount Baldo, on the lake Du Garda, exhibit large pieces of greyish marble, full of sea-shells, converted into a substance of white spatha':-near the sanctuary of Corona, flints mixed with fragments of star

11 Mercurio Italico, Volta. 1789.