LETTERS OP A CITIZEN. 481 



vier ? Perhaps you may not be aware that much of the eminence 

 of that distinguished naturalist arose from his magnificent work on 

 the fossil bones of the environs of Paris, and that, from his knowl- 

 edge and application of that branch of science, which you despised 

 and the secretary of the navy punned upon, emanated his splendid 

 theory of the earth ! The fame of Deshayes was in like manner es^ 

 tablished by his great work on the fossil shells of the same region. 

 Brogniart's celebrity rests on his learned and valuable works on 

 crustaceous and vegetable fossils. Desmarest derives his honours 

 from the same source ; and Agassiz owes his standing as a man of 

 science to his great work on fossil fishes. Did you ever happen to 

 hear, or did your commander, while in England, happen to learn, 

 that Buckland wrote a work on the fossil bones in the caves of 

 England and Wales ? Are you aware that his invaluable " Bridge- 

 water Treatise" consists wholly of descriptions and plates of fossil 

 bones of mammalia, birds, fishes, reptiles, and fossil crinordia and 

 vegetables ? Allow me, in all courtesy, to recommend that you 

 procure this book and read it, so that if your counsel should be 

 again requested in matters appertaining to the advancement of sci- 

 ence in this country, you may be spared the ridicule which your 

 extensive want of scientific knowledge, as displayed in relation to 

 the Exploring Expedition, has drawn down upon you. Should 

 the Bridge water Treatise fail to enlighten you, take up the work of 

 Lyell, and you will discover that his almost unparalleled eminence 

 as a geologist is altogether owing to his knowledge of organic re- 

 mains ; indeed, I might say the same of all other geologists of dis- 

 tinction. You would most assuredly make a glorious bargain, 

 could you barter the claims you have on the gratitude of posterity 

 for the enduring meed of praise which, by common consent of the 

 scientific of all countries, will be awarded to Lyndley and Hutton ; 

 and yet the foundation of their fame will be the " Fossil Flora of 

 Great Britain." Then there are Mantell's work on the Fossils 

 of Titgall Forest and Geology of the South Downs, Miller on 

 Fossil Crinordia, Murcheson's recent great work on the Silurian. 

 System, and the no less distinguished one by Sedgwick on the 

 Cambrian System. But why continue the list ? To complete it 

 would be to give the names of nearly al? the great men who have 

 written, during the last half century, on Natural History. 



Without considerable knowledge of fossil remains, it is inapossi- 

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