290 Sir R. I. Murchison's Notes on the Alps and Apennines. 



be inade in geological maps, and in the classification of 

 the rocks of this age, in South Europe and other parts of 

 the world. The union of the nummulitic and cretaceous 

 groups in one system, has been almost exclusively based 

 upon the prevailing phenomenon of both having undergone 

 the same movements, and having been often elevated into 

 the same peaks and ridges. But such agreement in phy- 

 sical outline cannot be admitted as invalidating the clear 

 testimony borne by organic remains, and from the study of 

 which Brongniart, Deshayes, Agassiz, D'Orbigny, and Bronn, 

 have all placed the nummulitic group as lower tertiary. 

 Patient geological researches, therefore, at length prove, that, 

 when clear from obscurities and unbroken, the order of su- 

 perposition is in harmony with the distribution of animal re- 

 mains. 



[P.S. — In the course of the memoir, of which it is difficult 

 to explain even the chief points in an abstract, the author 

 particularly cites Professors Studer and Brunner, jun., and 

 M. Arnold Escher von der Linth, as having rendered him 

 very great services in his examination of the Swiss Alps. In 

 reference to Savoy, he mentions the Canon Cliamousset and 

 M. Pillet ; and respecting the Eastern Alps, he points out the 

 assistance he received, first from the co-operation of his old 

 associate M. de Verneuil in his re-examination of Styria, Go- 

 sau, &c., and afterwards from M. Leopold de Buch, to travel 

 with whom through any part of that chain is to ensure good 

 results. It was when with M. de Buch and M. de Verneuil 

 that he explored the Triassic deposits of the South Tyrol. In 

 attending the Venetian Meeting of the Italian " Scienziati," 

 in the autumn of 1847, the author further necessarily acquired 

 much additional knowledge there from intercourse with the 

 geologists who have worked out the details of that region, 

 including Pasini, CatuUo, and De Zigno, and he was then led 

 to institute comparisons between some of the results of the 

 Marquis Pareto on the western slopes of the Southern Alps, 

 and with those of the Austrian geologists, V. Hauer, Morlot, 

 &c., in the east, as well as from that excellent palaeontologist, 

 M- Ewald, of Berlin. But as, at that time. Sir Roderick had 



