TERTIARY STRATA OF AIX. 371 



and moved and had their being before him. " The essential 

 character of a tooth, and its relation to the skull, being deter- 

 mined, immediately, all the other elements of the fabric fell 

 into their places, and the vertebrae, ribs, bones of the legs, 

 thighs, and feet, seemed to arrange themselves even without 

 my bidding, and precisely in the manner which 'I had pre- 

 dicted."* 



The reptiles and the fishes approach the forms now living ; 

 the mollusca and radiata are very numerous, amounting to 

 1677 species, of which 1478 belong to the Mollusca, and 

 199 to the Eadiata. They form a well-defined fauna of 

 extinct species, a few only of which can be identified with 

 living forms. We have already enumerated the prin- 

 cipal families to which they belong, in our chapter on 

 Palaeontology. 



TERTIARY STRATA OF AIX. Other groups of tertiary 

 strata occur in various parts of France. At Aix, in Provence, 

 are beds of marls, and freshwater limestones, which have 

 been so gradually deposited, that even the minute and fragile 

 forms of insect life are preserved therein. In other parts 

 of France and Switzerland, particularly at (Eningen, the 

 thinly laminated lacustrine marls have retained, in like per- 

 fection, objects of delicate and fragile structure, as insects, 

 and birds, the leaves and stems of plants, together with 

 Crustacea, fishes, tortoises, salamanders, and the perfect 

 skeleton of a fox. 



STRATA AND ORGANIC REMAINS OF MONTE BOLCA. This 

 celebrated mountain, situated near Verona, about fifty miles 

 from the lagunes of Venice, has long been classic ground to 

 the geologist, from the variety and profusion of the fossil 

 fishes entombed in its deposits. The strata are chiefly 

 argillaceous and calcareous, with intercalations of a cream- 

 coloured fissile limestone, which easily separates into laminae, 

 of moderate thickness, containing several hundred species of 

 fishes in the most beautiful state of preservation ; the bones, 

 scales, fins, and other delicate parts of their structure, being 

 admirably conserved. Prom the volcanic character of the 

 district, and the hill itself being capped with basalt,f it is 



* Cuvier. Ossemens Fossiles. 

 T Parkinson. Organic Remains, vol. iii, p. 247. 



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