V.

In Touraine,' there are 130,680,000 cubical fathoms of shells, unmixed with either stone, sand, or other extraneous matter, thirty-six leagues from the sea.The farmers manure their land with them. The environs of Paris afford, too, many striking phenomena. There bones of unknown animals occupy whole districts near which lie remains of animals, now natives of other climates. Vast collections of marine exuviæ have been discovered, in the very neighbourhood of which shells of fresh water fish are deeply imbedded. Let us examine the manner, in which these phenomena bear reference to each other.

I. The first formation is that of chalk, in which are unconnected flints disposed in beds. There are also organic remains, of which twenty-two species have been described by Cuvier and Brogniart.2 II. This stratum of chalk is covered with a bed of plastic clay, containing no calcareous, but some siliceous matter. It is, in some places, seventeen yards thick; in others not above three inches. III. The stratum in succession is that of coarse limestone:-sometimes separated from the clay by a bed of sand. In this formation have been found six hundred species of fossils. These have been described by De France and De la Mark. IV. The fourth stratum consists of siliceous limestone, lying parallel with the above: but no or

Buffon, vol. i. p. 222.

↑ Essai sur la Géographie Minéralogique des Environs de Paris. 1811.

4to.

ganic substance whatever has been discovered in it. V. Lying upon the siliceous limestone is a formation of alternate beds of gypsum, and of calcareous and argillaceous marls. In which have been discovered scattered bones, and entire skeletons of unknown birds and quadrupeds; and a few shells, evidently of a fresh water kind.

A little above these remains have also been found the bones of a tortoise, and of a crocodile; of a Parisian opossum ; a fine species of paleotherium'; five of anoplotherium2; a species of hog, and of a Parisian dog; a few fishes, and four unknown species of birds.

VI. The sixth formation is of marl; in which have have been discovered not only the remains of shells and fishes, but of a palm-tree. And immediately above these, in marl of marine origin, twenty-six species of fossil remains. VII. The seventh stratum consists of sand and sandstone without shells: over which is found-VIII. Sandstone, containing objects of marine formation; sixteen3 of which have been de

scribed by French geologists. IX. Is that of Buhr, used for millstones. X. Consists of marl and millstones,' in which are found shells, belonging to rivers and lakes; with twenty species of seeds, reeds, siliceous wood, and other vegetable substances. XI. The eleventh formation is a stratum of what is technically called "travelled earth;" consisting of marl, rounded pebbles, pudding-stone, clay, sand, gravel, and peat moss. In these substances were trunks of trees, and the bones of oxen, rein-deer, elephants, and other large mammalia."

It is interesting to remark, that part of this formation* (fresh-water) extends not only into the departments of Cher, Allier, Nievre, Cantal, Puy de Dome, Tarn, Lot, and the Garonne, but the same has been recently found in the Roman States, and in Tuscany; in the vicinities of Ulm, Mayence, and Silesia ;-and in several districts in Spain.

2 Webster has lately observed a series of rocks of the same general nature, resting on the chalk formation in the south of England: for a minute account of which the reader is referred to the Geological Transactions. The succeeding list of organic remains will sufficiently confirm the propriety of the inferences, which may be drawn from the existence and dispositions of organic with geological substances.

Organic Remains in the lower Marine Formation above the Chalk

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.

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

VOL. IV.

R