

64 



FUCHSEL.— BRANDER. 



[Ch. in. 



man. 



-x- 



He 



predecessor Lehman, and was aware of the distinctness 

 both as to position and fossil contents, of several groups of 

 strata of different ages, corresponding to the secondary for, 

 mations now recognised by geologists in various parts of 

 Germany. He supposed the European continents to have 

 remained covered by the sea until the formation of the 

 marine strata called in Germany ' muschelkalk/ at the same 

 time that the terrestrial plants of many European deposits, 

 attested the existence of dry land which bordered the ancient 

 sea ; land which, therefore, must have occupied the place of 

 the present ocean. This pre-existing continent had been 

 gradually swallowed up by the sea, different parts having sub- 

 sided in succession into subterranean caverns. All the 

 sedimentary strata were originally horizontal, and their 

 present state of derangement must be referred to subsequent 



oscillations of the ground. 



animals 



so also there must 



men 



om 



the earth's surface ; and the number of these distinct birth- 

 places was as great as are the original languages of nations. 

 In the writings of Euchsel we see a strong desire mani- 

 fested to explain geological phenomena as far as possible by 

 reference to the agency of known causes ; and although 



were 



some 01 his speculations 

 much more nearly with those r 

 the theories afterwards promul 

 followers. 



fanciful 



by Werner and his 



Brander, 1766. — Gustavus Brand er published, in 1766, his 



' Fossilia Hantoniensia/ containing excellent figures of fossil 

 shells from the more modern (or Eocene) marine strata of 

 Hampshire. ' Various opinions, 5 he says in the preface, ' had 

 been entertained concerning the time when and how these 

 bodies became deposited. Some there are who conceive that 

 it might have been effected in a wonderful length of time by 

 a gradual chanrmi£ and shifting of the sea/ &c. But the 



o 



b 



* This account of Fuchsel is derived moirs by M. Keferstein. Journ. de 

 from an excellent analysis of his me- Geologle, torn. ii. Oct, 1830. 









