340 



which now exist. The discovery of animals peculiar to 

 certain formations, and the general agreement with each 

 other of the fossils of the same formations, have led to the 

 belief that these several formations, were the consequences 

 of successive changes effected on the earth's surface ; and 

 that their contained fossils are the preserved remains of 

 the several creations which had been successively formed 

 to accord with the state of the planet under its several 

 changes. 



In the lower and consequently earlier formed strata, 

 the beds associated with coal, are found the bituminized 

 remains of unknown vegetables : and in the masses of 

 mountain limestone, &c. are immense accumulations of 

 crinoideal and terebratular remains, of the numerous species 

 of which tribes scarcely a living individual can now be found. 

 In these situations also exist the mineralized remains of 

 multilocular univalve and bivalve shells, and of others of 

 more simple forms, possessing such a structure as enabled 

 the animals which inhabited them to rise or sink in the 

 water as circumstances required. Many genera of this tribe 

 are here found in their mineralized state, as ammonites, 

 belemnites, orthoceratites, &c. some of which, as the ammo- 

 nites, are spread through the succeeding superior formations, 

 in myriads ; but no living individual of these genera is 

 known, except in a minute state, requiring microscopic aid 

 for their examination. The genus nautilus is the only one 

 whose existence through a few species, is continued to the 

 present day. 



The fossils of the succeeding superior formation, the 

 lias, yield strong proofs of their having been the production 

 of a distinct creation. Among them is found the first 

 trochiform univalve, trochus anglicanus; with numerous 

 genera of bivalves, differing essentially and generically from 

 those contained in the preceding formation ; such are 



