found inchfed in Stones, &c* 23 X 



mals can be of the fame antiquity as the ftones or fubftanccs 

 in which they are found. The age of the oldeft men, fays 

 he, never exceeded 169 years; and what is the life of an 

 infect when compared with that of man ? Even if we fup->- 

 pofe that the moderation of thefe animals, and their being 

 expofed to very little motion, had caufed their growth and 

 the periods of their life to be extended in an uncommon 

 decree ; and though their want of air, or rather their being 

 preferred and defended from the manifold impreffions of that 

 corrupted element, had contributed a great deal to their 

 fupport, the prolongation of life thence arifing could not 

 exceed fo very much their natural and ufual exiftence. M. 

 le Cat rather thinks that a hatched cgs, in all the cafe?, 

 mentioned, may have fallen by chance into fome fmall 

 cavity, where it was fecured from petrifaction till its fub- 

 ftance acquired fufficient ftrcngth. He here remarks that 

 eggs, when rubbed over with varnifh fo as to be defended 

 from the effects of the air, may be preferved fruitful for 

 years ; and he therefore believes, on good grounds, that ail 

 egg fo fecured in the centre of a rock might retain its activity 

 for fome thoufands of years, and even that it would be im- 

 poffible for it to be hatched till it had been expofed to a very 

 high degree of often renewed or long continued heat. Ac- 

 cording to M. le Cat's opinion it is the egg which is of great 

 antiquity, and not the animal. I fhall here obferve that 

 nature, when allowed peace and reft, does not require fo 

 much time as is generally believed in order to produce 

 mineral.-;. Of the truth of this remark I am fully convinced, 

 fmce I faw in the mufeum at Gottingen the ftep of a ladder 

 found on clearing the gallery of a mine in Rammelfberg, 

 abandoned at molt about 100 years before, and which in the 

 courfe of that period had been encrufted with felenite kven 

 . inches in thick nets. Nay wc have inftances of ore having 

 grown up in a much fhorter time *. 



* See Ulloas Nacbricbt von America, vol. ii. p. 14., and Trcbras Erfa/j- . 

 « vom latum tier Geburge, p- >3, tab. 4, no. 4. 



Q 4 I mud 



