34 



FOSSIL AI.CTONIA. 



cesses of nature, which have been acting from an indefinite 

 period of time, aided by the occasional heavings of strata j 

 effected by subterraneous heat. By this system — by the 

 gradual interchange of situation between land and water, 

 we might account for the mountains of fossil coral which 

 are found at considerable distances from the sea, were it 

 not that so little agreement is observable between the fossil 

 and the recent coral. Had the coral of the mountain and 

 the coral of the sea been constantly the same, it would, in- 

 deed, have furnished a powerful evidence of the gradual 

 change of relative place in the strata, which were once co- 

 vered by the ocean, but which are now thousands of feet 

 above its surface : the gradual receding of the sea would 

 have sufficed for the explanation. 



But how, according to this theory, shall we explain the 

 disagreement between the coral of the mountain and the 

 coral of the sea ? I see no explanation which can be thus 

 obtained : every thing being supposed to have proceeded in 

 its regular course, the animals of the first creation must then 

 but of some have exactly resembled those of the present hour. Some 

 tr^he* * S " vast cnan g e > °f powerful and even universal influence, must 

 be sought for, to explain this wonderful circumstance : and 

 such, doubtless, can only be found in the deftruction of a 

 former world. Thus, indeed, we shall be enabled to ac- 

 count for the existence of various animals, in a mineral 

 state, whose analogues are unknown ; but it must be ad- 

 mitted, that even this circumstance is not sufficient to ac- 

 count for the existence of animals at the present period, of 

 which no traces can be found in the ruins of that former 

 world. 

 Fossils of ani- We now arrive at the examination of that class of bodies, 



mat origin re- f w hicb it was remarked, in the former volume, that al- 



sembhng vege- ■" '-". ' .-..,, r 



tables. though they were decidedly animal substances ot marine 



origin, yet, from the resemblance which they bore to ter- 

 restrial fruits, their animal origin had been doubted, and 

 they had been considered as petrified oranges, figs, fun- 

 guses, nutmegs, &c. 



There is no substance which has attracted our attention* 

 daring the prosecution of these inquiries, which can yield 

 so many subjects for investigation as these bodies. For 



whether 



