12 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
in this respect, and that certain aquatic animals have bones as light 
and as delicate (delies) as many birds. As to this, which has the 
beaks separated from the body, it is very easy to be deceived ; and we 
know that the beaks of birds, as they were for a long time believed 
to be, in grey amber, have been recognized as the beaks of a cuttle- 
fish (seche) or a calmar, since they have been better examined. 
"But eliminating all that authors have so assigned through height- 
ened imagination, there remain some facts about which no legitimate 
doubt is permissible, since the fine discovery that has been made of 
which I have to render an account. On the 2nd IST ovember of the past 
year (1781), M. Darcet made a lithological journey to Montmartre, 
and found in the hands of the workmen who worked at the plaster- 
quarries (platrieres) a petrified bird, in the most beautiful conserva- 
tion. We should not, perhaps, have had for a long time the com- 
plete proof of the existence of ornitholites, if this savant had not been 
that day at Montmartre, for the workmen destroy what they find, or 
sell to the first comer ; and thus it is so much is lost to the progress 
of Natural History. M. Darcet is engaged at this time in important 
chemical labours, and has very kindly confided this petrifaction to 
me, and requested me to describe it. 
" The clifi" (butte) of Montmartre is elevated about 40 toises above 
the level of the Seine at Paris ; the gypsum rock, of which it is chiefly 
composed, is there arranged in beds more or less distinct, more or less 
adherent one to another. AVe see at the line of their contact a band, 
which seems to contain a slightly ferruginous matter. If we separate 
these from each other, and observe their surfaces, we find them less 
brilliant (brillantes) than the interior of the stone ; they are also of a 
lighter tint of red. Powder is used in working the quarries and to 
obtain the blocks, which are afterwards broken by blows of the 
hammer ; it was in the interior of the stone, at more than 20 toises 
from the summit, and between two adherent beds (deux couches qui 
avoient entr'elles de I'adhereiice) that the bird in question was found. 
The greatest part of its substance has followed the upper bed, and 
one sees the rest with the imprint of the whole in the lower bed. It 
is posed (pose) on its side ; one of its wings extended, the other 
folded (repliee) ; the head is turned in such a manner that we see one 
eye, the under-part (dessous) of the beak and a part of the upper 
(dessus). Its position (situation) is natural, and there is not any 
transposition in the parts. It appears, then, tliat it lias not been 
embedded (enseveli) alive, and that it did not perish in a catastrophe 
(dont ses ailes n'auroient pu le garautir), but that it fell at the 
bottom of tranquil water, which deposited in course of time the beds 
above it."* 
As yet, however, bird-remains had been but little collected, and we 
find the celebrated Peter Camper, the discoverer of the famous Mo- 
sasauncs, of Maestricht, in a letter printed in the " Philosophical 
* Further fletails fro m Rozier and the figure from his Plate will be given in the strati- 
graphical considerations with the other gypsum fossils. 
