M. Gerard continues, 'Just before crossing the boundary of Sudak into
Bassalier, I was exceedingly gratified by the discovery of a bed of
fossil oysters clinging to the rock as if they had been alive.' No doubt
many of the rocks are in more sublime relief now, than they were in the
antediluvian world. The subsidence of the land and lower levels, and the
action of submarine currents would scoop out deep valleys; and no doubt,
much that is now 'dry land,' once formed the bed of the ocean. Alpine
structures have emerged from the deep, and volcanoes have heaped up
elevations on mountains already lofty and sublime; as Cotopaxi,
Antisana, and Tunguragua, amid the range of the Cordilleras of the
Andes. The Geological Society has a series of ammonites from India.
These fossils are objects of adoration to the Hindoos: they fall on the
S.W. side of the Himala mountains from an altitude which exceeds that of
perpetual congelation: they are picked up by the natives, and
religiously preserved, being concealed as much as possible from the
scrutiny of Europeans. Mont Perdu, among the Appennines, which rise to
an altitude of eleven thousand feet above the sea's level, encloses an
innumerable multitude of testacea: and Humboldt found sea-shells among
the Andes, fourteen thousand feet above the level of the ocean.
Pages:
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66