32 NOTICES OF THE MEETINGS [March 7, 
the Alps were represented as a mountainous ridge in which all the 
submarine formations, from the medieval up to the older tertiary or 
Eocene, had been lifted up upon the flank of the primeval rocks. 
Each rock system being distinguished by a colour peculiar to it, the 
nature of the animals contained in each of these deposits was suc- 
cinctly touched upon. Between the youngest of the primeval 
formations and the oldest of the medieval or secondary rocks, it 
was stated, that there is not one species in common to the two in 
any part of Europe; the expression being that ‘‘an entirely new 
creation had succeeded to universal decay and death.” 
In speaking of the Alpine equivalents of the British Lias and 
Oolites, Sir R. paid a deep-felt tribute to Dr. Buckland, who thirty 
years ago had led the way in recognizing this parallel; and Leopold 
von Buch was particularly alluded to as having established these and 
other comparisons, and as having shown the extent to which large 
portions of these mountains have been metamorphosed from an earthy 
into a crystalline state. In treating of the cretaceous system it was 
shown that the Lower Green Sand of England, so well and so long 
ago illustrated by Dr. Fitton, was represented in the Alps by large 
masses of limestone, since called Neocomian by foreign geologists. 
Emphasis was laid upon the remarkable phenomena, that every 
where in the south of Europe (as in the Alps) the Nummulite rocks, 
with the ‘flysch’ of the Swiss, and the ‘macigno’ of the Italians, 
have been raised up into mountains together with the Hippurite and 
Inocerami rocks, or the chalk on which they rest; and hence it was, 
that before Sir R. made his last survey of the Alps, the greater 
number of geologists classed the Nummulite rocks with the cretaceous 
system, and considered them both to be of medizval or secondary 
age. But judging from the fossils which differ entirely from those 
of the chalk (except at the beds of junction) and also from their su- 
per- position, he had referred these Nummulite rocks to the true 
lower tertiary or Eocene of Lyell. Beds of this age, though once 
merely dark-coloured mud, have been converted into the hard 
slates of Glarus with their fossil fishes (among which eels and her- 
rings first made their appearance); other strata of this date contain 
the well known fishes of Monte Bolea; and others again have been 
rendered so crystalline amid the peaks of the Alps as to resemble 
primary rocks, so intense have been the metamorphoses! 
Dwelling for a few minutes on the atmospheric conditions which 
prevailed after the elevation of the older tertiary, Sir R. inferred 
that a Mediterranean and genial climate prevailed during all the 
long period whilst the beds of sand (Molasse) and of pebbles (Na- 
gelflue) were accumulating under the waters both of lakes and of the 
sea, and when derived from the slopes of all the pre-existing rocks. 
The marine portions of the Molasse and Nagelfiue contain the re-- 
mains of many species of shells now living in the Mediterranean ; 
whilst in alternating and overlying strata, charged exclusively with 
land and fresh water animals, not one species among many hun- 
