102 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



" We see clearly from what lias been stated tliat our seas are very poor 

 in whales ; we can easily connt the individuals which have been stranded. 

 But was it' so in tiiat ancient sea which deposited the red and black sand 

 of the province of Antwerp? 



"We shall remark that between the seas of two distinct geolo,^icaI 

 epochs there existed, in respect to their great inhabitants, considerable dif- 

 ferences, and these differences bear at once on the number of species and 

 the quantity of individuals : as rare as they are rare now, as they were 

 abundant then. 



"If the chemical composition of the sea has changed like its inhabitants, 

 we are still ignorant of it, but we shall not, perhaps, alvcays be so. As 

 Ehrenberg has pointed his microscope to the infusoria, and Herschel his 

 telescope to the stars, Bunsen and Kirchhoff direct their scrutinizing prism 

 over the entire world to find out its chemical nature, and they will soon 

 tell us, doubtless, whether the Crag Sea contained the same chemical ele- 

 ments as the present ocean. May we not expect this from the savants who 

 have noted gold and silver in the sun, and have determined the absence 

 there of the most common metals of the earth, silicium and aluminium ? 



" We have already said, on other occasions, that the Crag Sea nourished 

 such a great quantity of seals, dolphins, and whales, that their debris forms, 

 in different localities, veritable ossuaries.* Bones of all dimensions are 

 there thrown pell-mell ; and we see clearly that the skeletons of these great 

 cetacea have been, during a long time, the playthings of the water. At 

 each tide, shreds of bones and flesh were swept backward and forward by 

 the waves, until the soft parts were perfectly decomposed. The cetaceans 

 only were thrown upon the greatest heights, during the highest tides ; 

 and they were sometimes buried in their integrity. f 



" Independently of these legions of cetaceans, a great number of fishes 

 frequented the same latitudes ; but there are scarcely any other remains 

 than those of the Selachian fishes that have come down to us. The most 

 curious is the Carcliarodon megalodon, which was not less than seventy 

 feet in length, and for which an ox would have been only a mouthful. 

 Teeth of the Carcliarodon have been left in the Crag, and a very curious 

 vertebra. 



It is extraordinary that we find there so few remains of osseous fishes. 

 " Perhaps we may find the explanation of the rarity of the ordinary fish 

 in the fact that the ziphioid cetaceans predominated in that sea, and that 

 the nutriment of these cetacea consists exclusively of cephalopodous mol- 

 lusca. The great whales, as we know, feed only on the pteropoclous mol- 

 luscs, or on particular Crustacea, both of small size. 



" We shall not say anything of the shell-fish, nor the superb corals, 

 which peopled at that epoch the basin of Antwer]?. It is upon M. jN'yst, 

 whose conscientious labours are so justly appreciated at home and abroad, 

 will devolve the task of some day entertaining you with these interesting- 

 animals. 



" We should not always think that these fossil bones and their high 

 vahu^ ilia scientific point of view may not have been already appreciated 

 by nalui-alists. For a long time they have been known. These bones 

 have often been attributed to giants. Who knows if they do not even 

 enter into the legend of the origin of Antwerp ? Be that as it may, the 



* ' Los Grands ct les Petits dans le Temps et dans TEspace/ Bull, de I'Acad. Royale 

 dc Bolu;i(|ue : 2c seric, t. x. 



t The cetaceans, of whicli the relics are found in sncli abuudauce at Saint-Nicolas, 

 appear to bounder those ooiuliiioiis. ' Ossenionts Fossiles decouverts a Saint-Nicolas 

 en 1859,' Bull, do TAoad. l\oy. de Belgique, 2e seric, t. viii. 



