ENVIRONS OF NICE 449 



thing of the same kind was communicated to me by my friend 

 Risso, who showed me three or four nails, one of which he 

 most obligingly presented to me : these he assured me, with 

 every appearance of conviction, were taken out of the solid 

 strata in the vicinity of the harbour. We were very often en- 

 gaged to visit the spot, but it so happened, that something al- 

 ways came in the way to prevent it, and I left Nice without 

 being persuaded that the solid stratum was more than the ag- 

 glutinated shingle of the sea-beach, though the nail will I be- 

 lieve be allowed to have all the characters of genuine anti- 

 quity. 



I have thus enumerated all the objects which I met with de- 

 serving of attention in this interesting district ; and although 

 my observations were extremely circumscribed, still the mate- 

 rials which this little spot contains, are of much importance in 

 the geological history of the globe. It may be remarked, how- 

 ever, that the phenomena which it presents are somewhat pe- 

 culiar. In most countries, the organic remains are of a nature 

 totally differing from the living animals which now inhabit 

 them, proving that great alterations must have taken place on 

 the physical functions, if I may use such an expression, of the 

 different countries they are found in. In Britain, the skele- 

 ton of the Alligator, the shell of the Tortoise, and the impres- 

 sions of the Palm-tree, with which its strata abound ; as well 

 as the teeth of the Elephant, and the bones of the Mastodon- 

 ton, which have been found in its alluvial deposites, all tend 

 to shew under what different circumstances that country must 

 formerly have existed. The marine remains are in the same 

 predicament : they are rarely, if ever, of the species which occur 

 alive upon its coasts. At no greater distance than the opposite 

 side of the range of hills which separate the Nice district from 



Vol. VIII. P. II. 3 L the 



