Essay on the theory of the earth / by M. Cuvier ; with mineralogical notes, and an account of Cuvier's geological discoveries by Professor Jameson.

  • Cuvier, Georges, baron, 1769-1832.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essay on the theory of the earth / by M. Cuvier ; with mineralogical notes, and an account of Cuvier's geological discoveries by Professor Jameson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    368/392 (page 336)
    species. They consist, like] the lower fresh-water for- matioDj of several kinds of lymnei, helices, and planor- bes ; and from the perfect state of preservation in which they are found, appear to have lived in the places where they now are, the shells of these animals being so friable, that they could not have admitted of removal from their native situations without being broken. Over this bed is another of clay, eleven feet in thick- ness, containing numerous fragments of a small non-de- script bivalve shell. Upon this lies another bed of yel- low clay without shells, and then a bed of friable calca- reous sandstone, also without shells. To this sandstone succeed other calcareous strata, containing a few fresh- water shells. In these are parts of extreme compactness, and other parts contain masses of a loose chalky matter, most of which are of a round form ; and among these also are many beds of a calcareous matter, extremely dense, and much resembling those incrustations that have been formed by deposition from water on the walls of ancient buildings in Italy. Through all these last strata are veins, frequently several inches in thickness, of radiated calcareous spar. It contains the following fos- sil shells: Planorbis, much resembling that which Brongniart says approaches to P. cornu. Planorbis, two other species. Planorbis, much resembling P. prevostinus.