the Environs of Paris. IT; 



considerable trouble to find decided characters to distinguish 

 them. It appears- to me that such strong analogies, which 

 are not contradicted by any positive facts, ought to suffice 

 for establishing our opinion. 



The same reasoning might apply in a certain degree to the 

 green marls of the environs of Damerie, which do not con- 

 tain shells, and which are placed between the two systems of 

 fresh-water beds. I should observe, that I have never dis- 

 covered traces of the marine formation posterior to the first 

 fresh-water formation to the east of Chateau-Thierry, as if 

 the surface of this country had been too much elevated to 

 be covered by the waters of the sea, which have, at different 

 times perhaps, submerged the plain of Paris ; a very impor- 

 tant fact, and one that deserves to be verified in a greater 

 number of places. 



The country, the nature of which I have just shewn, is 

 one of the finest examples of the relations existing between 

 geological character and agricultural productions. Corn is 

 cultivated tiiroughout the chalky plain ; the slopes of the 

 calcaire k cerites are covered with vines, and as this lime- 

 stone, almost always friable, has fallen down upon the chalky 

 base, the cultivation of the vine extends as far as the level of 

 the plain ; the soil of the true chalk is not generally favour- 

 able to the vine, and it is right, in order to avoid the error 

 resulting from the habit, (when speaking of Champagne) of 

 associating the idea of a chalky soil and a country producing 

 good wines, to remark here, that the vineyards of Champagne 

 are generally on the borders of this region. Those which 

 on the western side produce the best wines, are, as has been 

 seen, upon the calcaire a cerites formation, and those on the 

 eastern border belong to beds beneath the chalk properly so 

 called, beds on which I shall say a few words at the end of 

 this memoir. When vineyards occur in the interior of 

 Champagne, they t^re upon patches upon one or other of 

 these rocks, which are found isolated on the true chalk. 



The fresh-water limestone, and its corresponding marls, 

 are not thick enough for any particular system of cultiva- 

 tion J often indeed the limestone beds, from their solidity, 



B 



