SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 555 



upon, but freely imparted in conversation many 

 years before. 



In the mean time the study of fossils was pur- 

 sued with zeal in various countries. Lamarck and 

 Defrance employed themselves in determining the 

 fossil-shells of the neighbourhood of Paris 18 ; and 

 the interest inspired by this subject was strongly 

 nourished and stimulated by the memorable work 

 of Cuvier and Brongniart, On the Environs of 

 Paris, published in 1811, and by Cuvier's subse- 

 quent researches on the subjects thus brought 

 under notice. For now, not only the distinction, 

 succession, and arrangement, but many other rela- 

 tions among fossil strata, irresistibly arrested the 

 attention of the philosopher. Brongniart 19 showed 

 that very striking resemblances occurred in their 

 fossil remains, between certain strata of Europe 

 and of North America; and proved that a rock 

 may be so much disguised, that the identity of 

 the stratum can only be recognized by geological 

 characters 20 . 



The Italian geologists had found in their hills, 

 for the most part, the same species of shells which 

 existed in their seas ; but the German and English 

 writers, as Gesner 21 , Easpe 22 , and Brander 23 , had per- 

 ceived that the fossil-shells were either of unknown 



18 Humboldt, Giss. d. R. p. 35. 



19 Hist. Nat. des Crustaces Fossiles, pp. 57, 62. 



20 Humboldt, Giss. d. R. p. 45. 



21 Lyell, i. 70. 22 Ib. 74. 28 Ib. 76. 



