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LETTER XXVIII. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE FOSSILS ALREADY DESCRIBED. 



IN the series of letters, composing the former volume, various facts 

 were adduced, in proof of the solid part of this globe having, at some 

 very distant period, been covered by water. An unexpected circum- 

 stance was at the same time noticed : hardly any agreement could 

 be found between the fossil vegetable remains and those vegetables 

 with which the earth is at present clothed ; and in the present volume, 

 an equal want of agreement has been observed between the fossil re- 

 mains, and the actually existing animals, of the order of zoophytes. 



That, in the stupendous changes which this planet has undergone, 

 several species of beings endued with vegetable or animal life should 

 have become extinct, is by no means inconsistent with the conclusions 

 to which an unbiassed consideration of those grand events would lead. 

 The discoveries, therefore, in the vestiges of a former world, of the re- 

 mains of innumerable vegetables and animals, such as would consti- 

 tute a prodigious number of species, and such as, according to the 

 strict laws of arrangement, might be even disposed in new and distinct 

 genera, although quite unexpected, is not in contradiction to what, 

 on reflection, we should have admitted, might, from the influ- 

 ence of particular circumstances, have occurred. But a fact has been 



