422 JOSEPH FOURIER. 
One must be blind to all reason not to find, in these 
enormous dimensions, a new proof of the high tempera- 
ture enjoyed by our country before the last irruptions of 
the ocean ! x | 
The study of fossil animals is no less fertile in results. 
I should digress from my subject if I were to examine 
here how the organization of animals is developed upon 
the earth; what modifications, or more strictly Speaking, 
what complications it has undergone after each cataclysm, 
or if I even stopped to describe one of those ancient. 
epochs during which the earth, the sea, and the atmos- 
phere had for inhabitants cold-blooded reptiles of enor- 
mous dimensions ; tortoises with shells three feet in di- 
ameter; lizards seventeen métres long; pterodactyles, 
veritable flying dragons of such strange forms, that they 
might be classed on good grounds either among reptiles, 
among mammiferous animals, or among birds. The ob- 
ject, which I have proposed, does not require that I 
should enter into such details; a single remark will 
suffice. . 
Among the bones contained in the strata nearest the 
present surface of the earth, are those of the hippopota- 
mus, the rhinoceros, and the elephant. These remains 
of animals of warm countries are to be found in all lati- 
tudes. Travellers have discovered specimens of them 
even at Melville Island, where the temperature descends, 
in the present day, 50° beneath zero. In Siberia they 
are found in such abundance as to have become an arti- 
cle of commerce. Finally, upon the rocky shores of the 
Arctic Ocean, there are to be found not merely frag- 
ments of skeletons, but whole elephants still covered with 
their flesh and skin. 
I should deceive myself very much, Gentlemen, if I 
