THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE. 149 



of Liguria and Alsace, in which are found quadrupeds of the families 

 above described ; but I do not learn that any of these animals are 

 found in other countries. The fossil bones of Germany, England, 

 and Italy, are all either older or more recent^than those we have enu- 

 merated, and belong either to that ancient race of reptiles of the Ju- 

 raic and copper -slate formations, or to the deposites of the last gene- 

 ral deluge — the diluvial layers. 



We may then believe, as there is no proof of the contrary, that, 

 at the epoch when these numerous pachydermata existed, the globe 

 only afforded them ; as habitations, a small number of tolerably fertile 

 plains, wherein they could multiply ; and perhaps these plains were 

 isolated regions, separated by considerable spaces of lofty chains, 

 where we do not find that our animals have left any vestiges of their 

 existence. 



We have, through the researches of M. Adolphe Brongniart, be- 

 come acquainted with the nature of the vegetables which covered these 

 few countries. In the same layers with our palseotheria are collected 

 trunks of palm trees, and many other beautiful plants, whose genus is 

 now only to be found in hot climates ; palm trees, crocodiles, and 

 trionyces are always found in] greater or lesser numbers wherever the 

 ancient pachydermata are discovered. 



But the sea, which had covered these countries and destroyed their 

 animals, left great deposites, which still form, at a trifling depth, the 

 basis of our great plains ; then it retired again, and yielded vast sur- 

 faces to a new population, of which the relics are to be found in the 

 sandy and muddy layers of all known countries. 



It is to this tranquil deposit of the sea that we should ascribe some 

 cetacea very much like those of the present time — a dolphin similar 

 to our epaulard, and a whale very similar to our rorquals — both ex- 

 humed in Lombardy by M. Cortosi ; a large whale's head found in 

 the very centre of Paris, and described by Lamanon and by Dauben- 

 ton ; and a genus entirely new, which I discovered and named ziphius, 

 and which at least consists of three species. It is allied to the cacha- 

 lots and hyperoodons. 



In the population which fills our post-diluvial and superficial strata, 

 and which has existed in the deposite we have just mentioned, there 

 are no longer palseotheria, anoplotheria, nor any of this peculiar genus. 

 The pachydermata, however, still were found there ; the gigantic pachy- 

 dermata, elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, accompanied by innu- 

 merable horses, and many large ruminantia. Carnivora of the size of 

 lions, tigers, andjHiyaenas, desolated the new animal kingdom. Its 



