A HISTORY OF 



From the variety of ilie colours and figure 

 of shells, we may pass to that of their place 

 and situation. Some are found in the sea; 

 some in fresh-water rivers ; some alive upon 

 land ; and a still greater quantity dead in the 

 bowels of the earth. But wherever shells are 

 found, they are universally known to be com- 

 posed of one and the same substance. They 

 are formed of an animal or calcariotis earth, 

 that ferments with vinegar and other acids, 

 and that burns into lime, and will not easily 

 melt into glass. Such is the substance of 

 which they are composed : and of their spoils, 

 many philosophers think that a great part of 

 ihe surface of the earth is composed at present. 

 !t is supposed by them, that chalks, marls, and 

 all such earths as ferment with vinegar, are 

 nothing more than a composition of shells, 

 decayed, and crumbled down to one uniform 

 mass. 



Sea-shells are either found in the depths of 

 the ocean, or they are cast empty and forsaken 

 of their animals upon shore. Those which 

 are fished up from the deep, are called by the 

 Latin name Pelagii; those that are cast upon 

 shore, are called Littorales. Many of the 

 pelagii are never seen upon shore ; they con- 

 tinue in the depths where they are bred ; and 

 we owe their capture only to accident. These, 

 therefore, are the most scarce shells, and con- 

 sequently the most valuable. The littorales 

 are more frequent, and such as are of the same 

 kind with the pelagii are not so beautiful. As 

 they are often empty and forsaken, and as 

 their animal is dead, and perhaps putrid in the 

 bottom of the shell, they by this means lose 

 the whiteness and the brilliancy of their colour- 

 ing. They are not unfrequently also found 

 eaten through, either by worms or by each 

 other ; and they are thus rendered less valu- 

 able : but what decreases their price still more 

 is, when they are scaled and .worn by lying too 

 long empty at the bottom, or exposed upon 

 the shore. Upon the whole, however, sea- 

 shells exceed either land or fossil shells in 

 beauty ; they receive the highest polish, and 

 exhibit the most brilliant and various colour- 

 ing.^ 



Fresh-water shells are neither so numerous, 

 so various, nor so beautiful, as those belong- 

 ing to the sea. They want that solidity which 

 the others have ; their clavicle, as it is called, 

 rs neither so prominent nor so strong; and not 



having a saline substance to tinge the surface 

 of the shell, the colours are obscure. In fresh- 

 water there are but two kinds of shells, name- 

 ly, the bivalvcd and the turbinated. 



Living land-shells are more beautiful, though 

 not so various as those of fresh-water ; and 

 some not inferior to sea-shells in beauty. 

 There are, indeed, but of one kind, namelv, 

 the turbinated ; but in that there are found 

 four or five very beautiful varieties. 



Of fossil, or, as they are called, extraneous 

 shells, found in the bowels of the earth, there 

 are great numbers, and as great a variety. In 

 this class there are as many kinds as in the 

 sea itself. There are found there turbinatcd, 

 the bivalve, and the multivative kinds ; and 

 of all these, many at present not to be found 

 even in the ocean. Indeed, the number is so 

 great, and the varieties so many, that it was 

 long the opinion of naturalists, that they were 

 merely the capricious productions of nature, 

 and had never given rein at to animals whose 

 habitations they resembled. They were found v 

 iiot only of various kinds, but in different states 

 of preservation : some had the shell entire, 

 composed, as in its primitive state, of a white 

 calcarious earth, and filled with earth, or even 

 empty ; others were found with the shell 

 entire, but filled with a substance which was 

 petrified by time ; others, and these in great 

 numbers, were found with the shell entirely 

 mouldered away, but the petrified substance 

 that filled it still exhibiting the figure of the 

 shell ; others still, that had been lodged near 

 earth or stone, impressed their print upon 

 these substances, and left the impression, 

 though they themselves were decayed : lastly, 

 some shells were found half mouldered away, 

 their parts scaling off from each other in the 

 same order in which they were originally 

 formed. However, these different stages of 

 the shell, and even their fermenting with acids, 

 were at first insufficient to convince those who 

 had before assigned them a different origin. 

 They were still considered as accidentally and 

 sportively formed, and deposited in the various 

 repositories where they were found, but no 

 way appertaining to any part of Animated 

 Nature. This put succeeding inquiries upon 

 more minute researches ; and they soon be- 

 gan to find, that often where they dug up 

 petrified shells or teeth, they could discover the 

 petrified remains of some other bony parts of 



