THE EARTH. 4S 



also seem to continue in such preservation, that 

 their fins, scales, and all the minutest distinctions 

 of their make, can be perfectly discerned.* 



From all these instances we may conclude, 

 that fossils are very numerous ; and, indeed, in- 

 dependent of their situations, they afford no small 

 entertainment to observe them as preserved in 

 the cabinets of the curious. The variety of 

 their kinds is astonishing. Most of the sea- 

 shells which are known, and many others to 

 which we are entirely strangers, are to be seen 

 either in their natural state, or in various degrees 

 of petrifaction.t In the place of some we have 

 mere spar, or stone, exactly expressing all the 

 lineaments of animals, as having been wholly 

 formed from them. For it has happened, that 

 the shells, dissolving by very slow degrees, and 

 the matter having nicely and exactly filled all 

 the cavities within, this matter, after the shells 

 have perished, has preserved exactly and regular- 

 ly the whole print of their internal surface. Of 

 these there are various kinds found in our pits ; 

 many of them resembling those of our own 

 shores ; and many others that are only to be 

 found on the coasts of other countries. There are 

 some shells resembling those that are never strand- 

 ed upon our coasts,t but that always remain in the 

 deep ; t and many more there are which we can as- 

 similate with no shells that are known amongst us. 

 But we find not only shells in our pits, but also 



* Bufibn, vol. i. p. 408. f Hill, p. 646. 



J Littorales. Pclagii. 



