172 



which exactly correspond with their respective fa- 

 milies still preserved in the Red Sea."* 



Similar facts and appearances occur on the northern 

 shores of the Mediterranean, and the districts adjacent, 

 likewise exposed to the force and operations of the 

 same current, some of which have recently been taken 

 notice of by Mr. Allen in his geological sketch of the 

 environs of Nice. 



" The fissures 1 now talk of, " he says, " seem to 

 have been formed after the consolidation of the breccia, 

 already described, and are literally filled, in some 

 places, with sea shells, of a species all now alive in the 

 Mediterranean". (Page i^J 



In speaking of the shells in the clay, he says, " It is 

 in this particular kind of clay that a considerable va- 

 riety of shells are found, of kinds also which are all 

 to be met with alive in the Mediterranean." (Page iy.J 

 And of the shells found in the sand near the village of 

 Trinity he further remarks, " If they can be got out 

 entire, they afterwards retain a slight degree of hard- 

 ness ; but even in their pulverulent state, they ex- 

 hibit their varieties distinctly, and all I am told, are 

 kinds now living in the Mediterranean. Indeed I 

 have seen most if not all of them, in a recent state." 

 (Page IQ.J 



Whence came these shells, but from the bottom of 

 the Mediterranean, where their species are now living? 

 And to what cause shall we attribute their removal, but 



* Shaw's Travels, p. 383. 



