36 



be natives of, and to have existed primitively in, the subterranean 

 regions : such are the metals, stones of the granitic class, and most 

 of the various substances, of which the primitive mountains are 

 formed. Under the SECONDARY FOSSILS*, I place those substances, 

 which bear indisputable testimony, in their structure and form, of 

 their having existed in an organized state ; and which are therefore 

 known to have had an animal or vegetable origin ; but which have 

 afterwards entered into, and become, subjects of the mineral 

 kingdom. 



SECONDAR-Y FOSSILS, which are alone intended to be the subjects 

 of our investigation, may, according to their origin, be divided into 

 two classes, VEGETABLE OR ANIMAL FOSSILS. Each class will be 

 found also capable of a further division, into orders, genera, and 

 species ; which classification although impossible to be made cor- 

 respondent with that of their recent analogues, will still, however, 

 yield some advantage in the prosecution of this study. The varie- 

 ties of the species can seldom be expected to be discoverable in 

 our specimens ; this term, therefore, may be adopted for those va- 

 rieties dependent on composition ; and which may be distinguished 

 by the epithets, appropriated to the several kinds of matter of 

 which they are formed; such as silicious, calcareous, aluminous, 

 bituminous, &c. Thus, I hope, without adopting any harsh or 

 offensive change, all confusion of terms may be avoided, and an 

 intelligible mode of expression secured. 



It is proper to observe here, that I shall consider as fossil bodies, 

 some substances, which, by writers of considerable authority, have 

 been deemed unfit to come under that denomination. The sub- 

 stances which I here allude to, are those which, having lost, by the 

 decomposing powers of certain subterranean processes, not only all 

 the softer parts, but almost the whole of those principles which are 

 peculiar to animal or vegetable substances, seem to retain only the 



* Transubstantiata, Linnseei. 



