142 Fossils. 



creatures of our world have originally 

 their provisions ; for from thence all the 

 plants have their sustenance, and some 

 few animals, and from these all other an- 

 imals. 



As this affords to animals and vegeta- 

 bles their support, so the spoils of these, 

 when dead or decayed, return to the dust 

 of the ground, from whence they were 

 formed, and thus keep up an unceasing 

 circulation. 



The most common disposition of the 

 layers is, that under the first earth is 

 found gravel or sand ; clay or marl ; then 

 chalk, or coal, marbles, ores, &c. This 

 disposition, however, is far from being 

 uniformly continued all over the globe ; 

 in different soils the order of these layers 

 vary. 



It is wonderful the variety of produc- 

 tions which are found in the different 

 parts of our globe. In the crumbling 

 chalk, the solid marble, the dusty gravel, 

 and even the depths of the most inland 

 valleys, and on the summits of the high- 

 est mountains, we behold the spoils of the 

 ocean, exhibited under the several ap- 

 pearances of petrified fish, beds of shells^ 



