550 HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 



clear argument respecting the different ages of 

 these two classes of hills. Fuchsel was, in 1762, 

 aware of the distinctness of strata of different ages 

 in Germany. Pallas and Saussure were guided by 

 general views of the same kind in observing the 

 countries which they visited: but. perhaps, the 

 general circulation of such notions was most due 

 to Werner. 



Sect. 2. Systematic Form given to Descriptive 

 Geology. Werner. 



WERNER expressed the general relations of the 

 strata of the earth by means of classifications 

 which, so far as general applicability is concerned, 

 are extremely imperfect and arbitrary ; he promul- 

 gated a theory which almost entirely neglected all 

 the facts previously discovered respecting the group- 

 ing of fossils, which was founded upon observa- 

 tions made in a very limited district of Germany, 

 and which was contradicted even by the facts of 

 this district. Yet the acuteness of his discrimina- 

 tion in the subjects which he studied, the generality 

 of the tenets he asserted, and the charm which he 

 threw about his speculations, gave to geology, or, 

 as he termed it, Geognosy, a popularity and reputa- 

 tion which it had never before possessed. His sys- 

 tem asserted certain universal formations, which 

 followed each other in a constant order; granite 

 the lowest, then mica-slate and clay-slate ; upon 



