402 
SECOND REPORT- 1832 . 
rather than to the repeated disturbances of a long succession of 
geological epochs, I must regard as neither consistent with 
antecedent probability nor with the most careful examination 
of the phenomena; yet it is impossible to speak too highly of 
the value of the general mass of geological information con¬ 
centrated in his treatises on this subject. 
The effects of diluvial action in the transport of rounded 
fragments of rocks to vast distances from their original site, 
present a subject of investigation certainly not less important 
than the preceding questions connected with volcanic agency 
and the theory of the elevation of our strata. On this subject 
late years have afforded us many important Memoirs,— vis. those 
of Sedgwick on our own country ; of Haussman on North Ger¬ 
many; of Von Buch and De Luc, jun., on the transported blocks 
of the Alps ; of Brongniart on those of Sweden; Sokolof on 
those of Russia; and of Lariviere and Schall on those of the 
Netherlands. 
Palaeontology , 
or the study of the remains of the extinct animals brought 
to light in these researches, has made no less progress than the 
other branches of geology within the last ten years: this period 
has witnessed the complete restitution, and I may almost say the 
resurrection, of the long-extinct and monstrous Saurians of the 
lias; the oolites of Stonesfield and the Wealden limestone of 
Tilgate have yielded the Megalosaurus, and the Iguanodon, to 
the researches of Buckland, and Mantell. 
Adverting to the history of the fossil mammalia of the most 
recent geological period, Buckland has exhibited the remains of 
the numerous bone caverns (a subject previously buried in con¬ 
fusion and obscurity,) in their true general relations to the con¬ 
generous remains of the diluvial gravel: and his acute observa¬ 
tion and extensive information on the general habits of the animal 
kingdom have thrown a light, which antecedently it would have 
appeared almost chimerical to expect, on the particulars of the 
history of these long-extinct races, and proved beyond a doubt 
that they were originally the inhabitants of the districts where 
their remains are now found : but still on many questions con¬ 
nected with this curious and interesting subject, especially the 
relative age of the human bones occasionally found in the same 
cavern (as at Bize in the South of France), we are bound to com¬ 
pare the opposite views of De Serres, Christal and Tournal with 
those of Buckland, with whom however Desnoyers appears 
entirely to agree. 
One of the most interesting recent discoveries in this depart- 
