CHAPTER XV. 



GENERALIZATIONS ON THE DEVELOPMENT 

 AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF NATURE IN SWITZERLAND. 



Part I. INORGANIC NATURE. 

 Section 1. Upheaval and Depression of Land. 



" Vidi ego, quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus, 

 Esse fretum : vidi factas ex aequore terras ; 

 Et procul a pelago conchse jacuere marines. " 



OVID, Metam. xv. 262. 



[" Straits have I seen that cover now 



What erst was solid earth ; have trodden land 

 "NVhere once was sea ; and gathered inland far 

 Dry ocean shells " *.] 



MARINE shells are found in Switzerland, not only in low grounds 

 but on the highest Alps ; and for the attainment of such a posi- 

 tion either the sea may at some period have reached up to the 

 lofty elevations where these animal-remains are met with, or the 

 mountains may have been upheaved to their present height. At 

 first the former supposition was generally received, and people 

 imagined a primaeval ocean covering all the land up to the sum- 

 mits of the highest mountains. But this notion is contradicted 

 by the circumstance that in that case the earth must have had 

 a larger diameter, which is certainly very improbable, and, f ur- 



* [See translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, by H. King, M.A., p. 508, 

 1871. EDITOR.] 



