12 



A HISTORY OF 



take up the reader's time from the pursuit of | most compact and ponderous substances 



truth in the discussion of plausibilities. In 

 fact, a thousand questions might be asked this 

 most ingenious philosopher, which he would 

 not find it easy to answer ; but such is the lot 

 of humanity, that a single Goth can in one 

 day destroy the fabric which Ctesars were em- 

 ployed an age in erecting. We might ask, 

 How mountains, which are composed of the 



should be the first whose parts the sea began 

 to remove ? We might ask, How fossil-wood 

 is found deeper even than shells ? which ar- 

 gues, that trees grew upon the places he sup- 

 poses once to have been covered with the ocean. 

 But we hope this excellent man is better em- 

 ployed than to think of gratifying the petulance 

 of incredulity, by answering endless objections. 



CHAPTER V. 



OF FOSSIL-SHELLS, AND OTHER EXTRANEOUS FOSSILS. 



WE may affirm of Mr. Buffon, that which 

 has been said of the chymists of old ; though 

 he may have failed in attaining his principal 

 aim, of establishing a theory, yet he has 

 brought together such a multitude of facts 

 relative to the history of the earth, and the 

 nature of its fossil productions, that curiosity 

 finds ample compensation, even while it feels 

 the want of conviction. 



Before, therefore, I enter upon the descrip- 

 tion of those parts of the earth which seem 

 more naturally to fall within the subject, it 

 will not be improper to give a short history 

 of those animal productions that are found in 

 such quantities, either upon its surface, or at 

 different depths below it. They demand our 

 curiosity; and, indeed, there is nothing in na- 

 tural history that has afforded more scope for 

 doubt, conjecture, and speculation. Whatever 

 depths of the earth we examine, or at what- 

 ever distance within land we seek, we most 

 commonly find a number of fossil-shells, which 

 being compared with others from the sea, of 

 known kinds, are found to be exactly of a 

 similar shape and nature." They are found at 

 the very bottom of quarries and mines, in the 

 retired and inmost parts of the most firm and 

 solid rocks, upon the tops of even the highest 

 hills and mountains, as well as in the valleys 

 and plains ; and this not in one country alone, 

 but in all places where there is any digging 

 for marble, chalk, or any other terrestrial mat- 



" Woodward's Essay towards a Natural History, p 3,6. 



ters, that are so compact as to fence off the 

 external injuries of the air, and thus preserve 

 these shells from decay. 



These marine substances, so commonly dif- 

 fused, and so generally to be met with, were 

 for a long time considered by philosophers as 

 productions, not of the sea, but of the earth, 

 " As we find that spars," said they, " always 

 shoot into peculiar shapes, so these seeming 

 snails, cockles, and mussel-shells, are only 

 sportive forms that nature assumes amongst 

 others of its mineral varieties: they have the 

 shape of fish, indeed, but they have always 

 been terrestrial substances.'" 1 



With this plausible solution mankind were 

 for a long time content : but upon closer in- 

 quiry, they were obliged to alter their opinion. 

 It was found that these shells had in every re- 

 spect the properties of animal, and not of mi- 

 neral nature. They were found exactly of 

 the same weight with their fellow shells upon 

 shore. They answered all the chymical trials 

 in the same manner as sea-shells do. Their 

 parts, when dissolved, had the same appearr 

 ance to view, the same smell and taste. They 

 had the same effects in medicine, when in- 

 wardly administered ; and, in a word, were 

 so exactly conformable to marine bodies, 

 that they had all the accidental concretions 

 growing to them, (such as pearls, corals, and 

 smaller shells,) which are found in shells just 

 gathered on the shore. They were, there- 



b Lowthorp's Abridgment, Phil. Trans, vol. ii. p. 426. 



