INTRODUCTION. 
ss 
I ossi shells, being necessarily without brilliance, colours, or 
beauty, and frequently imperfect, were formerly rejected from 
collections as destitute of interest; but since it has been observed 
that these fossils are precious monuments for the study of the 
revolutions undergone by diflerent points on the surface of the 
globe, they have become objects of the greatest interest to the 
Naturalist (1). 
It appears to have been proved that. the shells, lestaceous ver- 
micularia, echini, and different species of polypt which are found 
so profusely in the fossil state beneath the soil or on its surface, 
even in the middle of continents and on the highest mountains (2), 
are the remains of multitudes of marine animals which lived in 
these places, and that several of the species are analogous to 
those now inhabiting the seas (5). For, as the quantity of these 
remains is enormous, since we know of masses nearly a hundred 
miles in extent, and as shells of an extreme thinness and fragility 
are found entire amongst them, we cannot but conclude that 
their animals havo veally lived in these parts of the globe, and, 
consequently, that the sea has formerly been stationary there (‘). 
(4) Conchology, when rendered subservient to geognostic investigations, 
assumes the rank of an useful science, and then becomes a subject of the 
highest importance. Bulimus trifasciatus, a very common West Indian shell, 
occurs imbedded in the same limestone which incloses the fossil human ske= 
leton, lately sent to the British Museum, from the grande terre of Guadaloupe, 
by Sir A. Cochrane, proving that rock to be of modern date, and contempo- 
raneous with the existing creation of animals.—Leach’s Zoological Miscel- 
lany. Vol. t, p. 42. 
(2) According to Ulloa, shells have been found at the height of 14,220 feet 
above the sea, on a mountain in Peru. 
(3) M. Defrance has discovered at least 500 species of fossil shells in the 
calcaire grossier at Grignon, the equivalent of the London clay. 
(4) Les terrains les plus bas, les plus unis, excayés jusqu’a de trés-grandes 
profondeurs, ne montrent que des couches horizontales de maticres variées, 
enyeloppant presque toutes dinnombrables produits de la mer. Des couches 
