CHAPTER X. 



FOSSILS THEIR GREAT VARIETY ABUNDANCE OF FOSSIL SHELLS 



REMARKABLE FACTS RESPECTING THEM. 



Fossils present a very interesting subject of inquiry 

 to the student of nature. The term fossil, in its general 

 acceptation, signifies that which is dug out of the earth ; 

 it has, therefore, been applied to antiquities as well as to 

 natural, metallic, and mineral bodies. It is now some- 

 times used to designate simple and compound mineral 

 bodies ; but, more properly, the plants and animals 

 which occur in the strata 

 that compose the surface of 

 the globe. Most of these 

 fossil species, many of the 

 genera, and some of the fa- 

 milies, are now extinct. 



In the darker ages fossils 

 excited some attention. The 

 ancients, accustomed as they 

 were to observe nature, could 



A Fossil. 



