FOSSIL-SHELLS, AND OTHER EXTRANEOUS 

 FOSSILS. 



WE may affirm of Mr. BufFon, that which has been 

 said of the chemists 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 produc- 

 tions, that curiosity finds ample compensation, even while 

 it feels the want of conviction. 



Before, therefore, I enter upon the description 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 quanti- 

 ties, either upon its surface, or at different depths below it. 

 They demand our curiosity ; and, indeed, there is nothing 

 in natural history that has afforded more scope for doubt, 

 conjecture, and speculation. Whatever depths of the earth 

 we examine, or at whatever 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 moun- 

 tains, as well as in the valleys and plains ; and this not in 

 one country alone, but in all places where there is any dig- 

 ging 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 productions, not of the sea, but of the 

 earth. " As we find that spars," said they, " always shoot 



