LAMARCK’S WORK IN GEOLOGY 97 
by fossiliferous strata. From his obsérvations made 
on the Volga and about its mouth, he presented 
proofs of the former extension, in comparatively re- 
cent times, of the Caspian Sea. But still more preg- 
nant and remarkable was his discovery of an entire 
rhinoceros, with its flesh and skin, in the frozen soil 
of Siberia. His memoir on this animal places him 
among the forerunners of, if not within the ranks of, 
the founders of palzontology. 
Meanwhile Soldani, an Italian, had, in 1780, shown 
that the limestone strata of Italy had accumulated in 
a deep sea, at least far from land, and he was the first 
to observe the alternation of marine and fresh-water 
strata in the Paris basin. 
Lamarck must have taken much interest in the 
famous controversy between the Vulcanists and Nep- 
tunists. He visited Freyburg in 1771; whether he 
met Werner is not known, as Werner began to 
lecture in 1775. He must have personally known 
Faujas of Paris, who, in 1779, published his description 
of the volcanoes of Vivarais and Velay; while Des- 
marest’s (1725-1815) elaborate work on the volcanoes 
of Auvergne, published in 1774, in which he proved 
the igneous origin of basalt, was the best piece of 
geological exploration which had yet been accom- 
plished, and is still a classic.* 
Werner (1750-1817), the propounder of the Nep- 
tunian theory, was one of the founders of modern 
geology and of paleontology. His work entitled 
* Geikie states that the doctrine of the origin of valleys by the 
erosive action of the streams which flow through them, though it has 
been credited to various writers, was first clearly taught from actual 
concrete examples by Desmarest. L.c., p. 65. 
if 
