XAUTTLI7S AND A:M3rONITE. 



75 



The iS'autili which swam and sported with them at the depths 

 of the ocean, as is proved by the shells of many species found 

 in the same chalkj' deposits, have still their living represen- 

 tatives, but those winding galleries and pearly chambers once 

 fragile as paper and brittle as glass, now turned into, and 

 surrounded by solid stone, are all shells of extinct species, 

 and we can hardly see and handle them without some degree 

 of awe and reverence; when we reflect on the great and 

 wonderful changes that have passed over the earth since 

 they were formed by a hand divine, instinct with the breath 

 of life, and then to be embedded in the rock as everlasting 

 characters by which the unborn generations of men might read 

 in history of those changes, and of the providential dealings 

 of God with his creatures. Of these Ammonites, and other 

 fossil shells, much more will have to be said in our pro- 

 posed geological volume; the poem which follows will very 

 appropriately conclude the above remarks, and our present 

 little work on shells — beautiful, wonderful shells! useful, orna- 

 mental, instructive! The subject is one which we would earnestly 

 invite our young readers to study: it is but here introduced; 

 we have picked up a few, very few, of the wonders and 

 beauties of conchology, and presented them to their notice in 

 the hope that they may be induced to desire a more intimate 

 acquaintance with this branch of natural science, which has 

 been hitherto greatly neglected. To understand it thoroughly, 

 much attention and perseverance will be required, but even a 

 slight acquaintance with it will yield both pleasure and profit 

 to the mind. 



