IN THE MUD OF THE LEVANT. 63 



nodermata, Cytherinse, and a large quantity of 

 amorphous earthy matter. Allusion has already 

 been made to the resemblance between some of 

 the fossils from this stratum and those from the 

 Boston sand. The Lagena striata and L. glo- 

 bosa are identical, as well as several of the Cy- 

 therinse, and I believe also, some of the Rotalise. 



Eocene Strata. — Paris Basin. The labours of 

 Deshayes, Brongniart, Lamarck, and D'Orbigny, 

 have long since made us familiar with the exceed- 

 ing richness of the marine strata of the Paris basin 

 in Foraminifera.* Some of the leading forms have 

 been figured by D'Orbigny, Lamarck, Lyell, and 

 others. But the application of the microscope to 

 the deposits shews, that where they do not de- 

 generate into arenaceous strata, they not only 



* The Calcaire Grossiere of that extensive basin is in certain 

 places so filled with Foraminifera, that a cubic inch, from the 

 quarries of Gentilly, afforded 58,000, and that in beds of great 

 thickness, and of vast extent. This gives an average of about 

 3,000,000,000 for the cubic metre. (Alcide D'Orbigny on the 

 Foraminifera of America and the Canary Islands. Edinburgh 

 New Philosophical Journal. Vol. xxxii. p. 3. 1842.) — M. 

 D'Orbigny also remarks, that "this group of animals is not 

 less abundant in the Tertiary formations extending from Cham- 

 pagne to the sea, and its numbers arc prodigious in the basins 

 of the Gironde, of Austria and of Italy. (Idem, p. 3.) 



