6 . II. RELICS. Phenomena. 



i. The strata or masses of stone, &c., in which 

 reliquia are never known to exist as integrant parts, 

 but which, as just stated, constitute the most ele^ 

 vated mountains, are always found to dip towards, 

 and at length underlay the strata, &c. forming the 

 lower hills and plains, in which reliquia do occur. 



k. Between strata abounding in extraneous 

 fossils, beds of stone or other matter frequently in- 

 terpose, which seldom or never contain organic 

 remains in any situation, f 



/. In strata with a slaty or laminated texture, 

 extraneous fossils are always compressed or flat- 

 tened, ff although the same species, in concomitant 

 strata of substances not laminated, preserve the 

 perfect bulk of their originals. 



m. The parts of organized bodies most common 

 in a fossil state, are those which are known longest 

 to resist putrefaction and decay i. e. wood and 

 the leaves and stems of certain plants shells, 

 bones, corals, and other hard parts of animals. 



n. Very tender and succulent bodies, whether 



f Thus strata of rock-salt and gypsum, which rarely hold ex- 

 traneous fossils, sometimes alternate with clays and sandstdhes, 

 abounding in those bodies Our Derbyshire toadstone, in which 

 the smallest trace of organic remains has never yet been discovered, 

 runs between strata of limestone full of petrifactions. 



ft This observation has usually been confined to petrifactions 

 found in strata of common clay or other argillaceous substances, 

 but is equally applicable to all extraneous fossils bedded in lamin- 

 ated stones, whether argillaceous or not. 



