i 





66 



CORTESI.— PALLAS.— SAUSSURE. 



[Ch. III. 



Cortesi — Spallanzani 



Wallerius 



Whitehurst 



While 



these Italian naturalists, together with Cortesi and Spallan- 

 zani, were busily engaged in pointing out the analogy be- 

 tween the deposits of modern and ancient seas, and the 

 habits and arrangements of their organic inhabitants, and 



malrinor, in the same 



i 



writers, Whitehurst 



t and modern 

 rers among tl 

 and Wallerii 



wasting their 

 Woodwardian 



hypothesis, that all the strata were formed by Noah's deluge. 



s description of the rocks of Derbyshire was 

 id he atoned for false theoretical views, by 



Whitehurst 



most faithful ; and he atoned tor 

 providing data for their refutation. 



Pallas— Saussure.— Towards the close of the eighteenth 

 century, the idea of distinguishing the mineral masses on 

 our globe into separate groups, and studying their relations, 

 began to be generally diffused. Pallas and Saussure were 

 among the most celebrated whose labours contributed to 



this end. 

 mountain 



examination of the two g 



middle 



sides, and the limestones again on the outside of these ; and 

 this he conceived would prove a general law in the formation 

 of all chains composed chiefly of primary rocks.f 



In his 'Travels in Russia,' in 1793 and 1794, he made 

 many geological observations on the recent strata near the 

 Wolga and the Caspian, and adduced proofs of the greater 

 extent of the latter sea at no distant era in the earth's 

 history. His memoir on the fossil bones of Siberia attracted 

 attention to some of the most remarkable phenomena m 

 geology. He stated that he had found a rhinoceros entire in 

 the frozen soil, with its skin and flesh : an elephant, found 



mass 



"> 



removed all doubt as to the accuracy of so wonderful a dis- 



covery. J 



* Inquiry into the Original State and 

 Formation of the Earth, 1778. 



f Ohyerv. on the Formation of Moun- 



tains. Act. Petrop. ann. 1778, part *• 

 X Nov. comm. Petr. XVII. Cuuer 



1 



Elogo de Pallas. 













