228 THE HISTORY OF GEOLOGY 



"The History of Oxfordshire" is a very interesting 

 work, full of queer old-world information, quaint digres- 

 sions, and pleasant meanderings, winding gently on each 

 side of the main current of discourse. It contains a map 

 of Oxfordshire curiously bordered round with the arms of 

 the resident nobility and gentry, and each of its excellent 

 plates of illustrations bears a dedication in the corner to 

 some noble patron, with the emblazonment of his arms. 



Dr. Plot was evidently acquainted with the view r s of 

 Steno, but he did not share them ; on the contrary, he 

 met them with a strenuous opposition, in which he 

 displayed great resources of learning and dialectic skill. 

 A whole chapter of the History is devoted to the descrip- 

 tion of the Fossils, or, as they are there termed, the 

 "Formed Stones" of the county. It is illustrated by 

 engravings which, for truthfulness, leave little to be 

 desired, so that, even at this distance of time, there is 

 little difficulty in recognising and identifying the different 

 genera or even species that they represent. 



The stones to which Dr. Plot first directs attention are 

 those that stand in some connexion with the heavenly 

 bodies, such as the Sun-stone, of which, however, there 

 are none in Oxfordshire ; the Moon-stone, or Selenites ; 

 the Asterise, or Star-stones, which are evidently the joints 

 of the stem of a fossil, now called Extracrinus briareus ; 

 the Astroites, bodies of irregular form, but adorned with 

 constellations of stars ; these are clearly corals, such as 

 are now named Isastrea and Thamnastrea ; and finally 

 such stones as are supposed, "by the vulgar at least," to 

 be generated in the Clouds and discharged thence in the 

 times of Thunder and violent Shoivers " ; such are 

 Belemnites, and Brontise and Ombrise ; in the two latter 

 we now recognise several kinds of Sea-urchins. The 

 author then passes to "The Stones that concern the 

 Watery Kingdom " ; some of these are spars or minerals ; 



