Notices respecting New Books. 4-35 



thousand kinds of animals. The peculiarities of form and structure 

 among fossils are as constant and defined as among the living pro- 

 ductions of nature, and the species are often as well distinguished. 

 Upon comparing them with existing races, it is discovered that they 

 are generally quite distinct ; so that the fossil tribes, in some degree, 

 appear like a separate creation, and have been elegantly termed 

 'organic remains of a former world.' But though different in de- 

 tail, the ancient and existing races of organic nature are alike in ge- 

 neralities, and analogous inessential points of structure j and forcibly 

 urge us to conclude that they were destined for similar modes of life. 

 In the present economy of nature, plants of particular structure arr 

 appointed to exist under particular circumstances ; shells of certain 

 forms are peculiar to water, and others live habitually on land ; and, 

 generally, so constant is the agreement in the structure and func- 

 tions of organic beings, that from the one we may infer the other. 

 Who, that views the striking general resemblance of fossil and recent 

 bodies, and considers the similar accidents to which both have been 

 exposed, can hesitate for a moment to admit that conclusions drawn 

 from examination of the structure of fossils, are as valid as those 

 which are inferred from recent examples. The principle of investi- 

 gation is in both cases the same, viz. the inevitable accordance be- 

 tween the construction of the creature, and the uses for which it was 

 created. 



" From examinations conducted on this principle, it is inferred 

 that the secondary strata contain remains of marine, lacustrine, and 

 terrestrial plants -, of marine and fresh-water shells, Crustacea, and 

 fishes j and of aquatic and terrestrial reptiles, mammalia and birds. 

 This simple statement furnishes ground for most interesting deduc- 

 tions respecting the ancient condition of the globe. We cannot, 

 indeed, determine what was the comparative extent of its seas, lakes, 

 and dry land ; but we may form very reasonable opinions concerning 

 its temperature, and a tolerable history of its inhabitants at different 

 periods. For as the order of successive position among the rocks is 

 likewise that of their relative antiquity, the fossils collected from 

 these rocks may be arranged in chronological order. 



" The fossils of Britain thus arranged, (according to the example 

 of Mr. W. Smith,) present us with many curious and important re- 

 sults. The following instances are selected rather to show the rich- 

 ness and beauty of the subject, than to include all that is known 

 respecting it. 



tf The organic reliquiae of animals are more ancient than those of 

 plants, for they lie in the slate rocks of Cornwall and North Wales, 

 whilst no plants have yet been found in any rock older than the lower 

 red sandstone. The most abundant fossil remains of plants belong 

 to terrestrial tribes j but the animal reliquiae are mostly of aquatic 

 origin j and very few examples are known of any bones of terres- 

 trial animals occurring in strata more ancient than those above the 

 chalk. 



" The most ancient animal remains arc those of bivalve shells, 

 (Spirifera?,) such as are not known to exist at present. The most 

 ancient fossil plants which appear in the lower carboniferous rocks, 



3 K 2 almost 



