XVI INTRODUCTION. 



and medals we see stamped enduring records of great liistorical 

 events, so upon the rocks are written by the finger of God, a 

 history of some of the mighty changes which the earth has un- 

 dergone, and fossil shells are among the plainest and most easily 

 read of the characters or letters, in which these truths are written. 

 As Dr. Harvey, in his "Sea-side Book," observes, "Shelly-coated 

 mollusca have existed in the waters of the sea and in rivers, 

 from a very early period of the world's history, and have left 

 in its most stratified rocks and gravels abundance of their shells 

 preserved in a more perfect manner than the remains of most 

 other animals. Now as the species in the early rocks differ from 

 those found in later formations, quite as much as the latter from 

 the mollusca of our modern seas, the gradual change in the 

 character of the embedded shells marks a certain interval of time 

 in the world's history." So we see that these rocks are the 

 leaves of a great book, written all over with wonderful truths, 

 and those who study such sciences as Geology and Conchology, 

 are enabled to read much that is there written. 



Every fossil shell that such a student picks out of the chalk, 

 or limestone, is like a letter in the Alphabet of Creation; it has a 

 significance, or meaning, and a number of such put together, form 

 as it were, words and sentences, that can be made up into chapters, 

 full of instruction, aye, and of ainusement too. The study may 

 seem a little dry at first, but never mind, go on, and you will 

 soon be rewarded for your diligence, by the wonders that Mill 

 unfold themselves to your understanding — the fresh and delightful 

 views which you will obtain into the wide universe, the new and 

 enlarged ideas of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator, and 

 of the formation, habits, and connexion each with each of his 

 various creatures. 



Properly to treat of fossil shells, would require a book of itself, 

 and a large book too; we can here but allude to the subject, as 

 a part, and a very important and interesting part of the study 

 of Conchology; more will be said about it in a volume which 

 we purpose writing for this series, on Eocks, and the petrified 

 organic remains found in and about them. 



"Those relics of an older world, which tell 



Of changes slow or sudden, that have past 

 Over the face of nature; fossil shell, 



Shark's tooth, and bone of megatheran vast, 

 Turned into stone, and so preserved to show 

 Man of those things whereof he ought to know." 



