190 Botany. 



however be estimated, tliat the summit of the Orteler is at 

 least 19^00 I'aiis feet above the level of the IVJediterranean. 



liis: royal hisrhncss has caused huts and places of shelter 

 to be erected below and above the glacier;?, roads to be cut 

 out in the rocks, and ropes to be extended along them, in 

 order to open a safe pas~a^e for the friends of geology, and 

 those loud of the sublime oeautics of nature, to the summit 

 of a mountain, next to Montblanc, the highest in Europe, 



The ingenious and profound researches by which Cuvier 

 was able to di>cover and restore entirely the fossil skeletons 

 of several animals found in the quarries of Montmartre, and 

 of whiehan alogous ones exist, are well known. The method 

 by \vhich he etil-eted this restoration has been confirnrcd in a 

 strikinc; manner, bv the discoverv he has made of a skeleton 

 of the opossum, an animal the genus of which is now con- 

 fined exclusively to America. All the bones of this skeleton, 

 and those in particular by which it is characterized in the 

 most striking manner, were not at first discovered in the 

 stone ; but tlie relations which M. Cuvier knew to exist 

 between the different orcrans, and which he calls the zoolo- 

 gical laws, enabled him to judge from what he saw of what 

 he did not see. Such is the certainty of these relations, 

 that M. Cuvier was able to predict, that in searching further 

 in the quarry the two characteristic bones of this speciesy 

 those which serve to support the edges of the bag itv which 

 the opossum carries its young, would be found. Experience 

 confirmed what theory had foreseen. 



This fact is no less curious than embarrassing to the 

 ceolofrucs. M. Cuvier observes, that it entirely overturns 

 ahnos"t all their svstcms in regard to fossil animals : — 

 *' flitherto," says he, "^ thev would see in the fossil bones 

 of the North the animals of Asia only. They allowed, also, 

 tliat the animals of Asia had passed over to America, and 

 had been there buried, at least in the north ; but it would 

 seem that the American genera never quitted- their native 

 ioil, and that they never extended to those countries which 

 form at present the old continent. This is the second proof 

 1 have discovered of the contrary." 



HOT AN r. 



E. Rudge, Esq. F.R.S. and F.L.S. is about to publish 

 in a few days the first fasciculus of a splendid work, en- 

 tilled Planiarum Guiaiue Rar'wnttn Icones ct Descrlptiones 

 kucteiiiis wodUof. The plants from which the figures are 

 taken, forn)ed a part of that superb collection of natural 

 history consigned by order of the French Government from 



Cavenue 



