The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-10-05

all acquisition-the fruit of long study.
History shows us that the race has been
what it is since Louis Treize was king,
yea, since Strabo wrote. The Greeks and
the Romans distinguished the ancient
Celts from all the people comprehended
under the name of barbarians, because of
their politeness. 1t is therefore inheri-
tance, and "to the manner born"-in-
grained in the very web-woof of French
society. 1t lends subtle charm to all
intercourse charm which one can as
readily observe on the street as in the
drawing ng-room-among the bourgeoise as
amid the aristocratic classes.
But we have almost forgotten our voy-
age to Honheur, In meditations on French
civihty. We are aroused, however, from
our reveries by the hustle of crowded
docks and picturesque wharves and land
amid such a collection of old fashioned
quays, tortuous streets, and old world
buildings, as must drive an artist wild.
Emerging from the quays, we come upon
short street with tempting avenue of
trees at its further end, leading out into
the country. We follow this road until
we come upon the mari beds of Honfeur
the deposits Of ancient Caspian seas, and
forever famous for the discovery of the
fossil remains of the
Marine Reptiles Called Ichthyosaurs.
out of which the celebrated Cuvier artic-
ulated new species of animal creation,
and revolutionized the Zoology of France.
He proved thereby the existence in past
geologic ages, of an order of reptiles diff
fering wholly from any that now frequent
land or sea. Most remarkable are the
remains of these large animals, and they
may we'll be compared to monsters en-
gendered in the imagination, exhibiting
as they do the singular spectacle of a
head like a dolphin, with the teeth of
crocodile placed at the extremity of
long neck consisting of eighty vertebrae,
attached to the body of a lizard Even
so celebrated naturalist as Cuvier would
have failed to convince the scientific
world of the existence of such an ancient
monster but for many discoveries of like
fossil remains. The Plesiosaurs, not un-
like lizards, and about nine feet long,
were unearthed near Boulogne. A third
animal of the same species, to which a
French naturalist has given the name of
Teleosaur, resembling in some respects
the crocodile, was found in the quarries
of Caen. In the strata of Montmartre,
Belleville, and Montmorency, in the quar-
ries of AK, in the calcareous mari near
Orleans, and on the Rhenish limits of
France, bones were found in such num-
bers and Of such marked character as to
corroborate and prove beyond a doubt
the existence of graminivorous animals,
very different from any which now exist
on the earth surface. The only animals
to which they bear any resemblance in
shape, are the tapers that exist at present
in the new world. A very interesting
discussion of the real nature of these pc
culiar reptiles is to be found in the paper
read this year by Professor Seeley before
the British Scientific Association.
Returning from our geological ramble,
and scrambGng up the steep streets, we
reach Place whereon stands
The Beacon Church of Honfleur.
The steeple has apparently had quarrel
with the rest of the building and walked
off to settle down some yards further.
1t is painted wooden structure, some
what low, and undoubtedly aged An
old market woman at her fruit stand, as
sures us that the building is 800 years
old. Room for exaggeration in these fig
ures If utter decrepitude, however,
will produce conviction, that of the build
ing proves beyond peradventure its great
antiquity. Perhaps the most interesting
feature is the votive offerings to be seen
in the interior, dedicated to the church
by the Norwegian sailors, grateful for de-
liverance from the perils of the sea.
What Dell is to England, Honheur has
been to France-the landing place for
Norwegian ship timber--evidence of
which remains not only in these votive
offerings, but in the language and Gus
toms of portion of the towns-people.
Proceeding upon our tour Of investiga-
tion we are stopped at almost every step
by some subject for admiration Here it
is an old wooden house with it's white
and black layers-there a steep street
attracts us with its gabled roofs nearly
touching each other Further on we
climb up lane where there is Just room
for us to pass between the lines of shrimps
laid out on long tables to tempt the passer
by-while their live brethren, fresh from
the net, are wriggling about in huge bas-
kets. A minute later we pass the college
on whose walls are placarded
Grande Distribution des Prix.