S90 Sckhtific Intelligence. — Geohgy. 



aroiilid Tui-in, of Vicenza and Verona in Italy. The num- 

 ber of fossils in this group may approach to 1000, but Deshayes 

 did not state the exact number, of which 180 are living species. 

 The third group comprises the greater part of the deposits of 

 Montpellier, especially of the blue marl, — the subapennine for- 

 mation of Italy and Sicily, &c. — those of Vienna, and the basin 

 of the Danube, the crag of England, and certain modern con- 

 chiferous deposits along the west coast of South America. 

 The zoological character of this group is, that it contains 50 

 species analogous to the living, the greater part of which in- 

 habit the neighbouring seas. Deshayes has examined 600 Ita- 

 lian species; of 190 from Sicily, 188 are living species. A 

 similar classification was some time ago proposed by Elie de 

 Beaumont, founded on geological considerations, — the first group 

 he traces to an up-raising nearly north and south, the second to 

 an up-raising N. 25° E., and the third from W.S.W. toE.N.E., 

 which raised the subapennine beds of Italy. 



11. Universality of Formations. — If the primary and igne- 

 ous rocks are found all over the globe, we cannot as yet say so 

 much for those of the secondary class. Thus the great coal 

 formation appears to abound most under the polar circle, and in 

 the two temperate zones, but is rarer near to the equator ; a geo- 

 graphical distribution, probably connected with its mode of Ibr- 

 mation. The deposits between this formation and the Jura 

 limestone, have scarcely been met with beyond the limits of 

 Europe, excepting in India, when the new red sandstone and the 

 lias limestones are said to abound. The deposites observed by 

 Pander and Eversman, between the lake of Aral and Bucharia, 

 are probably referable to these two secondary formations. If the 

 Jura limestone is infinitely more frequent, or better known in 

 the four quarters of the world, the greensand and chalk have only 

 been found well marked in America, as in Patagonia, at the en- 

 trance of the Straits of Magellan, and in the Atlantic portion of 

 the United States. The tertiary and alluvial deposits, on the 

 contrary, play a more important part on the surface of the earth. 

 It appears that at least throughout Europe, and in Russian and 

 Central Asia, the upper tertiary formation prevails in an eminent 

 degree. In the grand basin of the North of Germany, Von Buch 

 observed, by means of the fofsils, a greater resemblance with the 



