LIFE ON THE EAKTH. 177 



debate; yet having according to the wishes and ad- 

 vice of those eminent virtuosi, Mr Hook and Mr 

 Ray, made some considerable collections of these 

 kind of things, and observed many particulars and 

 circumstances concerning them; upon mature con- 

 sideration, I must confess I am inclined rather to 

 the opinion of Mr Lister, that they are lapides sui 

 generis; than to theirs, that they are thus formed in 

 an animal mould. The latter opinion appearing at 

 present to be pressed with far more and more in- 

 superable difficulties than the former. For they that 

 hold these stones were thus formed in the shells of 

 fishes, must suppose either with Steno, that they 

 were brought hither by the Deluge in the days of 

 Noah; or by some other more particular and per- 

 haps national flood, such as the Ogygean or Deu- 

 calionian in Greece, than either of which there is 

 nothing more improbable.' 



His argument against the Noachian origin of the 

 figured stones is very complete; first, that it was not 

 universal, but confined to the continent of Asia; and 

 next, that if it were universal it could not have 

 produced the effects which require to be explained, 

 whether it were occasioned by rain, or the breaking 

 up of the sea, and whether it were violent or gradual. 



E. L. 



