449 



TThis fossil was added to the collection in the British Museum, 

 by Mr. Douglas, by whom it is figured and described in his inge- 

 nious Essay on the Antiquity of the Earth. 



Fig. 6, 7, 8, of the same Plate represent a fossil found in Lei* 

 cestershire. It is of a triangular form ; three raised lines, -passing 

 through its length, at equal distances, on the general rounded sur- 

 face, give it an appearance rather difficult to imitate. Similar fos- 

 sils are found in Derbyshire, and have been figured and described 

 by Mr. Martin, in his history of the fossils of that county. Like 

 the fossils already described, these must also be placed among 

 those productions of a former world, which are unknown to us ; 

 and which lead to the supposition, that a considerable difference 

 must have existed between the subjects of the vegetable kingdom of 

 that period and the present. The fossil depicted at Plate IX. Fig. 2-, 

 is of a very dark iron-stone of a scoriaceous appearance ; bearing 

 very nearly the form of a lemon : but which, however, I rather con* 

 jecture to have been the stone of some very large drupaceousfruit. 



Although from the ambiguous nature of the subjects which have 

 engaged our attention, we have frequently been obliged to rest 

 satisfied with conjectural remarks ; as yet we have been able, with- 

 out difficulty, to draw a line of distinction between the subjects of 

 the animal and of the vegetable kingdom. We now come to the 

 consideration of certain bodies of antediluvian origin, so equivocal 

 in their appearance as to render it exceedingly doubtful in which 

 of the two grand divisions of organized matter they should be placed. 

 So totally different are these bodies from any which are known to 

 exist in the present world, that the mind not only hesitates at 

 determining whether they be of animal, or vegetable nature ; but, 

 misled by the various fantastic forms which they assume, is disposed 

 to consider these several species, of perhaps the same genus, as 

 bodies differing so widely .from each other as sponges, figs, fun- 

 guses, nutmegs, and corals. It was by a substance of this kind 



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