11 PREFACE. 



arc daily increasing., I esteem it somewhat strange, 

 that an elementary treatise, on the subject of extra- 

 neous fossils, should hitherto be wanting That is, 

 a treatise containing a regular exposition of facts 

 and principles, on which the study may be con- 

 ducted, agreeably to the relation it holds with 

 other branches of natural knowledge. The present 

 work is an humble attempt to supply this deficiency. 



It remains for me to offer a few remarks on the 

 origin and progress of this design. When I first 

 applied my attention to the collecting and descri- 

 bing of those subjects, belonging to the fossil king- 

 dom, which are usually denominated extraneous, (a) 

 I expected to find, in mineralogical or other works, 

 some generally received principles, by which I might 

 direct my researches ^but in vain no such princi- 

 ples have as yet been acknowledged. On the contrary, 

 it is even undetermined by authors, what fossils pro- 

 perly come within the pale of this study, and what 

 do not. Hence, some exclude all animal and vege- 



(a) I employ the terms native and extraneous fossils as 

 those in general use ; but by no means contend for the propriety 

 of their application Relics and Minerals (Reliquia et Minerce) 

 are the terms under which I propose to divide the fossil kingdom. 

 V. p. 3. 



