Fossil Bones of Saint-Privat-d' AUier' 285 



cd on the surface of the soil in only a small number of points, 

 in which it is easy to recognize, that the superimposed basaltic 

 masses have been forcibly carried thither by the waters. All 

 these observations induce us likewise to regard these transport- 

 ed materials as having been exclusively derived from surround- 

 ing rocks, and as having been transported and deposited un- 

 der the waters themselves of this basin. We cannot then 

 award to them the name of diluvium in the sense which we 

 commonly attach to this word, except to distinguish them 

 from alluvium^ the result of actual waters. 



* ' I have on another occasion (Description geog nostique des 

 Environs du Puy^ p. 188, et suivantes) explained the pheno- 

 mena which in the circle of Le Puy have appeared in succession 

 during the volcanic period, and to which we must recur, in or- 

 der to include in our calculation the formation of these trans- 

 ported materials. But if we nevertheless persist in wishing to 

 consider them as having been caused by the invasion of the 

 sea, which has dispersed the true diluvium over the surface 

 of the plains, and caused so great a number of races of ani- 

 mals then existing to perish, we must be constrained to admit, 

 that a very considerable portion of the basaltic land is of a date 

 posterior to this great catastrophe. But is this conclusion ad- 

 missible after the discovery of antediluvian remains of animals 

 between the more recent volcanic flows ? or is it not at least ob- 

 ligatory upon us to suppose, that some individuals among them 

 had escaped destruction .?" 



[These are some of the conclusions to which the author of 

 this excellent memoir arrives. Another deduction, remaining 

 to be stated, has a reference to the arguments which appear in 

 the course of the dissertation, and which we have only withheld 

 on account of the interruption which they give to the main nar- 

 rative, — that the distribution of the lateral vallies connected 

 with the Allier, among which is that of Saint-Privat, is still to 

 day what it was before the volcanic period ; and that since 

 this time, even the direction of the course of the Allier has not 

 experienced any remarkable change. Arguing then, as indeed 

 he has frequently before done, upon the very remote antiquity 



NEW SERIES, VOL. II. NO. II. APRIL 1830. T 



