242 REPORT ON THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF 



NATURAL SCIENCES. 



Having mentioned rocks and localities in connexion with the water 

 of Saxony, we pass quite naturally, in commencing the second part 

 of this report, which regards the natural sciences, to the subject of 

 geology. The study of our globe, moreover, in what relates to its 

 constitution and its composition, would seem a needful preliminary 

 to the examination of the organized bodies which cover it, although 

 in turn the former is singularly facilitated by the study of these same 

 bodies in a fossil state; geology and palaeontology thus forming a whole 

 whose different parts it would be difficult to separate from one another. 

 There is no branch, indeed, in the physical and natural sciences which 

 involves more numerous relations to every part of our knowledge. 

 We see a striking exemplification of this in a memoir relating to 

 geologico-archaeological researches in Denmark and Switzerland, which 

 M. Morlot has communicated to the society, and which signalizes the 

 remarkable relations whicli subsist between the development of 

 archaeology and that of geology. In effect, it is only from material 

 indications buried beneath the soil that we can ascertain the existence 

 of men at an epoch anterior to all traditional accounts. In imitation 

 of the Scandinavian archaeologists, M. Morlot divides this ante-historic 

 period into three ages— the age of stone, that of bronze, and that of 

 iron. It is only with the age of iron that figures of men and plants 

 make their appearance, as well as coins and alphabets; it is the aurora 

 of history. Different details are presented by M. Morlot respecting 

 these three ages, and the material traces of them which have come 

 to light. 



As regards geology proper, we have first to notice a memoir by M. 

 Marcou on the classification of the new red sandstone in Europe, North 

 America, and India. The author considers this great series of strata 

 as intermediate between the primary and secondary periods, deciding 

 for this middle term after having discussed the often controverted 

 question whether the permian ought to be annexed to the secondary 

 formations. He distinguishes two formations in this group: 1st, the 

 trias, the composition of which is known; and 2d, the dyas, com- 

 prising the zecltstein and the rothliegende. — (See Archives des Sciences, 

 Ph. et Nat., 1859, t. V.) 



Another geological memoir is that of M. Favre on the geology of 

 the Mole, which forms a portion of the great work of our colleague 

 on the liasic and keuperian formations of Savoy, (printed in our 

 memoirs.) Among other observations of M. Favre we must make 

 mention of that which relates to a fine deposit of fossils near the 

 summit of the Mole, in which he has succeeded in discriminating forty 

 species which pertain to the lias formation; but a remarkable circum- 

 stance is, that the fossils of three stages of this formation are asso- 

 ciated in one and the same stratum. M. Favre has noticed several 

 localities of the Alps and the Cevennes where this association has 

 been recognized, and he has been led to the conclusion that the causes 



