vO ——— 
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ENVIRONS OF NICE 449 
thing of the same kind was communicated to me by my friend 
Risso, who showed me three or four nails, one of which he 
most obligingly presented to me: these he assured me, with 
every appearance of conviction, were taken out of the solid 
strata in the vicinity of the harbour. We were very often en- 
gaged to visit the spot, but it so happered, that something al- 
ways came in the way to prevent it, and I left Nice without 
being persuaded that the solid stratum was more than the ag- 
glutinated shingle of the sea-beach, though the nail will I be- 
lieve be allowed to have all the characters of genuine anti- 
quity. 
I have thus enumerated all the objects which I met with de- 
serving of attention in this interesting district ; and although 
my observations were extremely circumscribed, still the mate- 
rials which this little spot contains, are of much importance in 
the geological history of the globe. It may be remarked, how- 
ever, that the phenomena which it presents are somewhat pe- 
culiar. In most countries, the organic remains are of a nature 
totally differing from the living animals which now inhabit 
them, proving that great aitemirins must have taken place on 
the physical functions, if I may use such an expression, of the 
different countries they are found in. In Britain, the skele- 
ton of the Alligator, the shell of the Tortoise, and the i impres- 
sions of the’ Palm-tree; with which its strata abound ; 3 as well 
as the teeth of the Elephant, and the bones of the Mastodon- 
ton,’ which have been found in its alluvial deposites, all tend 
to shew under what different circumstances that country must 
formerly have existed: The marine remains are in the same 
predicament : they are rarely, if ever, of the species which occur 
_ alive upon its coasts. At no greater distance than the opposite 
side of the range of hills which separate the Nice district from 
Vou. VIII. P. II. 3L the 
