

— I 



'J 



.-. 





-. 









Ch. III.] 



DONATI.— BALDASSAKL— BUFFON. 



57 



Spada had observed near Verona, and Schiavo in Sicily,) that 

 fossil shells were not scattered through the rocks at random, 

 but disposed in regular order, according to certain genera 



and species. 



•But with a view of throwing 



Vitaliano Donati, 1750. 

 further light upon these questions, Donati, in 1750, undertook 

 a more extensive investigation of the Adriatic, and discovered, 

 by numerous soundings, that deposits of sand, marl, and 

 tufaceous incrustations, most strictly analogous to those of 

 the Subapennine hills, were in the act of accumulating there. 

 He ascertained that there were no shells in some of the sub- 

 marine tracts, while in other places they lived together in 



familie 



and some others. He 



he 



found a mass composed of corals, shells^ and crustaceous 

 bodies of different species, confusedly blended with earth, 

 sand, and gravel. 



mor 



substances were entirely petrified and reduced to marble ; at 



less than a foot from the surface, they approacnea neaiei w 

 their natural state ; while at the surface they were alive, or, 

 if dead, in a good state of preservation. 



Baldassari.—A contemporary naturalist, Baldassari, had 

 shown that the organic remains in the tertiary marls of the 

 Siennese territory were grouped in families, in a manner 

 precisely similar to that above alluded to by Donati. 



Buffon first made known his theoretical 



changes of the earth, in his 



#< 



views 



former 



History 



He 



of an original volcanic nucleus, together with the universal 

 ocean of Leibnitz. By this aqueous envelope the highest 

 mountains were once covered. Marine currents then acted 

 violently, and formed horizontal strata, by washing away 



some 



also excavated deep submarine valleys. The level of the 

 ocean was then depressed by the entrance of a part of its 



some 



left dry. Buffon seems not to have profited, like Leibnitz 

 and Moro, by the observations of Steno, or he could not 



jied that the strata were generally horizontal, and 



ima 





