from Guadaloupe. log 
scopo primario nobis incognito satisfecerunt penitus. Con- 
“ victus eliam quam maxime sum, orbem nostrum variis illis 
“ ac horrendis catastrophis fuisse expositum aliquot seculis 
antequam homo fait creatus: nunquam enim liucusque videre 
“ mihi contigit veriun os humanum petrifactum, aut fossile, 
“ etiamsi Mammonteorum, Elephantorum, Rhinocerotum,* 
“ Bubalorum, aliorumque perplurima viderim ossa/' Nova 
Act. Petrop. Tom. II. p. 251- 
But on the history of the strata produced by the more recent 
catastrophes of the globe (and it is the formation of these 
alone which can be scrutinized with an}^ reasonable prospect 
of success) most light has been thrown by the indefatigable 
exertions of M. Cuvier. Superlatively skilled in comparative 
anatomy, this gentleman has succeeded in determining the 
fossil bones of no less than seventy- eight species, of which 
forty-nine are entirely unknown among the existing race of 
animals ; about twelve are identified with known species, and 
the remainder strongly resemble existing species, although 
their identity has not been completely ascertained. From 
the multiplied observations which this naturalist has com- 
municated in his numerous memoirs, we may gather that 
the viviparous quadrupeds appear at a much later period in 
the fossil state than the oviparous ; the latter being probably 
coeval with the fishes, whilst the former are found only in 
the newest formations, in which, according to Brongniart 
and Cuvier's interesting discovery, marine beds are observed 
to alternate with those of fresh water, and which (in the 
neighbourhood of Paris) overlay the coarse shell limestone 
which constitutes the last strata formed, as it would appear, 
by a long and quiet stay of the sea on our continent. 
