24 A HISTORY. OF 



the tc-ps 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 

 tliere is any digging for marble, chalk, or any other terrestrial matters, 

 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 diffused, and so generally to 

 be met with, were for a long time considered by philosophers as pro- 

 ductions, not of the sea, but of the earth. " As we find that spars," 

 said they, " always shoot into peculiar shapes, so these seeming 

 snail, cockle, and muscle-fhells, 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 sub- 

 stances."* 



With this plausible solution mankind were for a long time content ; 

 but, upon closer inquiry, they were obliged to alter their opinion. It 

 was found that these shells had in every respect the properties of ani- 

 mal, and not of mineral 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 appearance to view, the same smell and 

 taste. They had the same effects in medicine, when inwardly ad- 

 ministered : 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, therefore, from these considera 

 tions, given back to the sea ; but the wonder was, how to account for 

 their coming so far from their own natural element upon land.t 



As this naturally gave rise to many conjectures, it is not to be won- 

 dered that some among them have been very extraordinary. An 

 Italian, quoted by Mr. Buffon, supposes them to have been dep9sited 

 in the earth at the time of the crusades, by the pilgrims who returned 

 from Jerusalem ; who gathering them upon the sea-shore, in their re- 

 turn carried them to their different places of habitation. But this 

 conjecturer seems to have but a very inadequate idea of their num- 

 bers. At Touraine, in France, more than a hundred miles from the 

 sea, there is a plain of about nine leagues long, and as many broad, 

 whence the peasants of the country supply themselves with marl for 

 manuring their lands. They seldom dig deeper than twenty feet, and 

 the whole plain is composed of the same materials, which are shells 

 of various kinds, without the smallest portion of earth between them. 

 Here then is a large space, in which are deposited millions of tons 

 of shells, that pilgrims could not have collected, though their whole 

 employment had been nothing else. England is furnished with its 

 beds, which, though not quite so extensive, yet are equally wonderful. 

 " Near Reading, in Berkshire, for many succeeding generations, a coiv. 

 tinued body of oyster-shells has been found through the whole cir- 

 cumference of live or six acres of ground. The foundation of these 

 shells is a hard rocky chalk ; and above this chalk, the oyster-shells 

 lie in a bed of green sand, upon a level, as nigh as can possiblj 



Txiwtb's Abridgment Phil Trans, vol p. 426 f Woodwa d, p. 43 



