On the Topography and Soil of Paris. 225 
the mound of Nétre Dame de bonne Nouvelle, between the 
ancient gates of Montmartre and St. Denis; the mound 
De Ja Rue Meslay, between the gates of St. Martin and of 
the Temple. 
And upon the opposite hanks of the Seine, the mound 
De la Rue St. Hyacinth, between the gates of St. Michael 
and St. Jaques, the mound at the extremity of Rue Taranne; 
and finally, that which is at present the Labyrinth of the 
Jardin des Plantes. The last two have been formed of the 
rubbish which came out of Paris by the gates Bussy and 
Saint Bernard, and from that which came from the Faux- 
bourgs St. Germain-des-Prés and St. Victor. 
The various mounds now described form the only re- 
markable protuberances on the present surface of Paris. The 
diggings which are daily made into them prove that they 
are composed of adventitious materials ; and if this fact 
were not in a manuer proved every instant, it would he dif- 
ficult to account in any other way for the formation of 
such mounds in the midst of a level exposed to periodical 
inundations. 
When these mounds had acquired a certain elevation 
above the adjoining edifices, windmills were erected on théir 
summits. The old plans of Paris point out these edifices, 
which existed even some time after the eminences in ques- 
tion had been included within the last inclosure made of Paris: 
about the year 1634. ‘The population still increasing, these 
mounds were levelled, and new houses built upon the spot. 
The fortifications of the capital having been demolished 
and its ancient ramparts converted into a promenade, there 
was nothing to hinder the suburbs from extending. It was 
at the commencement of the last century that the Fauxbourg 
St. Germain rose on the left bank of the Seine on the Pré- 
aux-Clercs. The Fauxbourgs situated on the right bank of 
this river between the Boulevards and the hillucks of Mont- 
martre and Roule have an origin still more recent. The 
sround which they occupy has been raised by rubbish, at 
rst forming various causeways more or less elevated above’ 
the meadows, and following the alignement of the new 
streets. The spaces between these causeways have been 
successively raised to their level. y 
It is upon these artificial soils that the quarters of Paris: 
are built which project in the marshes of the’ Temple and of 
Popincourt, and at the foot of the mound Roule. We 
there see new causeways passing through garden grounds, 
until these very grounds are in their turn covered with rub- 
bish on which new buildings will be erected. 
After having ascertained the various causes which. have 
Vol. 37. No, 155, March 1811, P concurred 
