126 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
of szlictous fossils, and examples of this kind are the 
different oysters (‘des ostracites’), many terebratulz 
(‘ des terebratulites ’), trigonia, ammonites, echinites, 
encrinites, etc. 
“The fossils of which I have just spoken are in 
part buried in the earth, and others lie scattered over 
its surface. They occur in all the exposed parts of 
our globe, in the middle even of the largest con- 
tinents, and, what is very remarkable, they occur on 
mountains up to very considerable altitudes. In 
many places the fossils buried in the earth form banks 
“ 
extending several leagues in length.” * 
Conchologists, he says, did not care to collect or 
study fossil shells, because they had lost their lustre, 
colors, and beauty, and they were rejected from col- 
lections on this account as “ dead” and uninteresting. 
“But,” he adds, “since attention has been drawn to 
the fact that these fossils are extremely valuable 
monuments for the study of the revolutions which have 
taken place in different regions of the earth, and of 
the changes which the beings living there have them- 
selves successively undergone (in my lectures I have 
always insisted on these considerations), consequently 
the search for and study of fossils have excited 
special interest, and are now the objects of the 
greatest interest to naturalists.” 
Lamarck then combats the views of several natu- 
ralists, undoubtedly referring to Cuvier, that the fos- 
*In a footnote Lamarck refers to an unpublished work, which 
probably formed a part of the Wydrogéologie, published in the follow- 
ing year. ‘‘Voves a ce sujet mon ouvrage intitulé: De linfluence du 
mouvement des eaus sur la surface du globe terrestre, et des indices du 
déplacement continuel du bassin des mers, ainsi que de son transport 
successif sur les différens points de la surface du globe” (no date). 
