beds. Michell's observations, which were 

 all made previous to 1760, when his paper 

 appeared, carried the subject considerably 

 further. It must be remembered that the 

 importance of organic remains in strati- 

 graphy was still unknown. Indeed, there 

 were probably naturalists still surviving 

 who, if they did not regard these remains 

 as "sports of nature," firmly believed 

 them to be memorials of Noah's Flood, 

 during which the whole vast thickness 

 of stratified formations was supposed to 

 have been deposited. Even such a shrewd 

 observer as John Woodward, founder of 

 the Chair of Geology at Cambridge, enter- 

 tained this belief, and thought that the 

 fossils had arranged themselves according 

 to their weight, the heavier shells and 

 bones sinking into the deeper parts of the 

 sediments in the diluvial waters, while 

 the lighter organisms settled down in the 

 upper layers. 



Over the whole of the region in the 

 south of England which he was able 

 40 



