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but little has been done in this part of the world, towards the ad- 

 vancement of this science. Many gentlemen, indeed, have formed 

 large and valuable collections, and must have made many impor- 

 tant and valuable observations, but, unfortunately, very few of these 

 have met the public eye. Indeed the study has been, in this coun- 

 try, confined to so small a number of persons, that prudential rea- 

 sons must have had considerable influence, in deterring the inge- 

 nious observer from risking the expenses of publication. 



This culpable neglect of a study fraught with interest, instruc- 

 tion, and amusement, is certainly attributable to our not possessing, 

 in the English language, any work which furnishes a regular and 

 connected account of the numerous petrified bodies, which almost 

 every where surround us. For want of this kind of information, 

 these truly astonishing substances, excite, in general, only a mo- 

 mentary wonder ; instead of leading the mind to compare them with 

 the living beings they resemble, and to mark, from the endless va- 

 rying forms, observable, even in their spoils, the number of beings 

 which once existed, but whose living archetypes are now totally 

 unknown ; and are entirely unnoticed in the earliest descriptions of 

 the works of nature. 



Surely it is not too much to hope, that a faithful history of these 

 substances ; tracing them, where it is possible, to their analogous 

 living beings ; and where not, to such as they most resemble ; point- 

 ing out, according to rational conjecture, the modes in which they 

 probably existed, and the stations which they have been appointed 

 to fill ; and tracing the influence which the changes, suffered by 

 this part of animal creation, has had on the globe we inhabit ; may 

 excite the admirers of nature again to turn their attention to these, 

 not her least beautiful, nor her least admirable works. 



The present period is surely auspicious to this hope. Mineralogy 

 has already obtained a firm and wide footing ; and the study of ani- 

 mated nature must be daily gaining admirers, from the pleasing 



