XIV 
perhaps an intermediate league presents the same 
Polypidom to observation, that composes the heads of 
their mountains. The air, light, and rains, have con- 
tributed to destroy the animals of these madrepores ; 
their skeletons alone remain to attest the ancient so- 
journ of the ocean in these elevated sites, and the 
slow but incessant diminishing of the waters on the 
planet we inhabit. Voyagers have found fossil ma- 
drepores on the Alps, the Pyrenees, & c. M. Ra~ 
mond, in a letter to M. de St. Amans, says, “ he dis- 
covered marine relics on the summit of Mount 
Perdu,” the highest of the Pyrenees. 
BASE OR POINT OF FIXING. 
Some plants are found in all latitudes, in all coun- 
tries, and in all soils, whether on the roof of the cot- 
tage, or on the marble of the palace ; the number of 
these plants is however inconsiderable. The majority 
of vegetables that adorn the surface of the globe, re- 
quire a particular soil and climate : the same is not the 
case with Polypidoms ; few among them prefer one 
substance to another in fixing : the greater number of 
these beings, requiring only one point of rest, attach in- 
differently to any hard or solid body the sea contains ; 
