O F FOSSIL-SHELL S, &c. 109 



is a variety of the Concha anonria, or Conchites ammius of au- 

 thors (zj. 



22- A fingle valve of aventricofe hooked OJlrea, Jtnated lengthways. 

 It is another variety of the fame mell (a). Both thefe are in a 

 fragment of limeftone from the ftiore of the brook below Simon' 

 rK.-caftle. There is a group of them ; the infide of one of the 

 latter lying upwards to view. 



All thefe marine mells were found thirty, and fome forty miles 

 from the fea, thofe of our own, and thofe of the Mediterranean 

 and Indian feas* found in company together, in the fame tomb. 

 To what catailrophe could this be owing, but to the Mofaic de- 

 luge ? For the teftaceous inhabitants, of fo many diilant mores 

 and oceans to- be thus brought together, and to have the fame 

 alpine fepulture with thofe of our own fliores and feas, could be 

 owing to nothing lefs ; and are irrefragable teftimonies againft 

 every fyitem tending to fupport a partial or topical deluge ; thofe 

 fyftems generally doing more honour to their authors ingenuity, 

 than to their caufe; experience being the beft teft, and fuperlor 

 to all their. arguments, how artfully fo ever they are contrived, and 

 under whatever Circean charms they appear to delude the under- 

 ftanding, to lefferi the authority of a hiftory unimpeached by 

 Pagan antiquity ; the fage Greek giving it his applaufe (b)^ and the 

 wife Roman, though a fatyrift, doing it no difcredit fcj. 



(z) Plot's OxforJfh. tab. 4. fig. 18. 



Conchites anomius rugof.is. Lift. Ang!. p. 238. 



Gryphites latiufculus longirofter. Lh. Lith. Brit. n. 473. 



(a) Gryphites ventricofior. Id. n. 495. 497. (b) Lwginus.- 



(c) Quidam fortiti metuentem Sabbata Patrem, 



Judaicum edifcunt, et fervantj ac metuunt jus, 



Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Mofes. Juv. Sat. 14. 



I have 



