21S 



TERTIARY STRATA ROUND PARIS. 



In France, the tertiary strata are more widely spread, and many 

 of them more fully developed, than in England : it is indeed scarce- 

 ly possible to imagine a more distinct display of the series of strata 

 in any class of rocks, than is presented, close to the very gates of 

 Paris. In a capital so distinguished for scientific investigation, and 

 possessing so many able and acute observers, it does, indeed, seem 

 extraordinary, that the strata with which they were surrounded, 

 should never have been properly examined until so recent a period, 

 as the early part of the present century. What is daily before our 

 eyes seldom excites attention, or is deemed deserving of much no- 

 tice ; but there was another cause which long prevented the philoso- 

 phers of Paris from observing the remarkable objects around them. 

 Captivated with the generalizations of Werner, who, it was firmly 

 believed, had unlocked all the hidden mysteries of geology, and com- 

 prised in his system all the different formations that composed the 

 crust of the globe, they saw before them a series of strata which had 

 no agreement with any part of the Wernerian classification ; hence, 

 they could not avoid the painful persuasion, either that the system of 

 Werner was incomplete, or that they were unable to apply it prop- 

 erly. To avoid an acknowledgment so little satisfactory, the geolo- 

 gists of Paris averted their attention, and that of their pupils, from 

 nearer objects, and directed them to the mountains of Germany or 

 Switzerland. Had not another science (comparative anatomy) come 

 to the aid of geology, we might yet have remained unacquainted with 

 the tertiary strata around Paris. At length, the number of skeletons 

 of strange and unknown animals discovered in some of the strata, 

 forcibly attracted the notice of that distinguished naturalist, Cuvier, 

 and it was resolved to investigate attentively the geology of the whole 

 district. M. A. Brongniart was associated with Cuvier in the inves- 

 tigation ; and in 1811 the result of their labours and observations was 

 given, in a work entitled Essai sur la Geographie Mineralogique des 

 Environs de Paris, — the most luminous and interesting exposition of 

 local geology ever presented to the world ; and from this period we 

 may date the first accurate knowledge of the tertiary strata. 



The following extract from the Essay of MM. Cuvier and Brong- 

 niart, presents a general view of the arrangement of the strata round 

 Paris : — 



" The country in which the capital of France is situated, is per- 

 haps the most remarkable that has yet been observed, both from the 

 succession of different soils of which it is formed, and from the ex- 

 traordinary organic remains which it contains. Millions of marine 

 shells, which alternate regularly with freshwater shells, compose the 

 principal mass. Bones of land animals, of which the genera are 

 entirely unknown, are found in certain parts ; other bones remark- 

 able for their vast size, and of which some of similar genera [quelques 

 congeneres) exist only in distant countries, are found scattered in the 

 upper beds. A marked character of a great irruption from the 



