w recognized by
geologists in various parts of Germany. He supposed the European
continents to have remained covered by the sea until the formation of
the marine strata, called in Germany "muschelkalk," at the same time
that the terrestrial plants of many European deposits, attested the
existence of dry land which bordered the ancient sea; land which,
therefore, must have occupied the place of the present ocean. The
pre-existing continent had been _gradually_ swallowed up by the sea,
different parts having subsided in succession into subterranean caverns.
All the sedimentary strata were originally horizontal, and their present
state of derangement must be referred to subsequent oscillations of the
ground.

As there were plants and animals in the ancient periods, so also there
must have been men, but they did not all descend from one pair, but were
created at various points on the earth's surface; and the number of
these distinct birth-places was as great as are the original languages
of nations.

In the writings of Fuchsel we see a strong desire manifested to explain
geological phenomena as far as possible by reference to the agency of
known causes; and although some of his speculations were fanciful, his
views coincide much more nearly with those now generally adopted, than
the theories afterwards promulgated by Werner and his followers.

_Brander_, 1766.--Gustavus Brander published, in 1766, his "Fossilia
Hantoniensia," containing excellent figures of fossil shells from the
more modern (or Eocene) marine strata of Hampshire. "Various opinions,"
he says in the preface, "had been entertained concerning the time when
and how these bodies became deposited. Some there are who conceive that
it might have been effected in a wonderful length of time by a gradual
changing and shifting of the sea," &c. But the most common cause
assigned is that of "the deluge." This conjecture, he says, even if the
universality of the flood be not called in question, is purely
hypothetical. In his opinion, fossil animals and testacea were, for the
most part, of unknown species; and of such as were known, the living
analogues now belonged to southern latitudes.

_Soldani_, 1780.--Soldani applied successfully his knowledge of zoology
to illustrate the history of stratified masses. He explained that
microscopic testacea and zoophytes inhabited the depths of the
Mediterranean; and that the fossil species were, in like manner, found
in those de