6 Anniversary Address of the 



eight, or one-fourth of the whole series, were identical with 

 fossils of the lower eocene of the Paris basin, while the rest 

 were all tertiary forms except four, which belonged to species 

 of the chalk.* In a paper by M. Deshayes, read to the Geo- 

 logical Society of France in June 1844, t that able concholo- 

 gist declared, after examining the Biaritz fossils, " that the 

 whole of the nummulitic system must be classed as tertiary ; 

 an opinion confirmatory," he said, " of the results previously 

 arrived at by M. Leymerie in the Corbieres, and of M. Ber- 

 trand Geslin in the Alps. Lastly, I may observe, that you 

 will find similar opinions recorded in the " Bulletin," either 

 in the memoirs or verbal comments of MM. Deshayes, Charles 

 Desmoulins, Raulin, Leymerie, Tallavigne, Delbos, Desor, 

 Boue, Archiac, and Alcide D'Orbigny, all published in the 

 course of the last six years. Whether a real transition from 

 the cretaceous to the tertiary strata can be made out, is a 

 point which has also been fully discussed, and how far the 

 Maestricht beds are represented in the Pyrenees. It ap- 

 pears from the researches of MM. Desmoulins and Raulin, 

 that some few of the characteristic fossils of Maestricht 

 have really been found in that chain ; but you will, I think, 

 agree with M. Deshayes, that they are not enough to establish 

 the existence of any true equivalent of the Maestricht group 

 — ^that distinct and uppermost division of the chalk to which 

 the Faxoe coralline limestone in Seeland, as well as the piso- 

 litic strata of Sezanne near Paris, are referable. 



"When we consider that the age of the nummulitic forma- 

 tion of the Pyrenees, however clearly it may now be deter- 

 mined to be tertiary, has been regarded by so many able 

 authorities as a subject of perplexity and debate up to so 

 late a period, we cannot feel surprised that MM. de Beau- 

 mont and Dufrenoy, in constructing their geological map of 

 France many years before, should have referred these strata 

 in the Alps, and in the regions bordering the Mediterranean, 

 to an age anterior to the calcaire grossier of Paris, especially 

 when we learn that even now M. Agassiz affirms, that out of 



* Bulletin, vol. iv. 2d Series, p. 1006. 



t Translated in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1845, p. 111. 



