30 insToiiY OF 



of the earth wluch seem more naturally to fall vvithin the subject, 

 it will not be improper to give a short history of those animiJ 

 productions that are found in such quantites, either upon its sur- 

 face, or at different depths below it. They demand our curiosi- 

 ty ; and, indeed, there is nothing in natural history that has af- 

 forded more scope for doubt, conjecture, and speculation. 

 Whatever depths of the earth we examine, or at whatever dis- 

 tance within land we seek, we most commonly find a number 

 of fossil-shells, which being compared with others from the sea, 

 of knoMT^i kinds, are found to be exactly of a sim.ilar shape and 

 nature.* They are found at the very bottom of quarries and 

 mines, in the retired and inmost parts of the most firm and solid 

 rocks, upon the tops of even the highest hills and mountains, as 

 well as in the valleys and plains ; and this not in one country 

 alone, but in all places where there is any digging for marble, 

 chalk, or any other terrestrial matters, that are so compact as 

 to fence off the external injuries of the air, and thus preserve 

 these shells from decay. 



These marine substances, so commonly diffused, and so gene- 

 rally to be met with, were for a long time considered by phi- 

 be so great as to cause the entire destruction of all existing genera. Accor. 

 dingly, not only the species, but even the genera change with the strata ; 

 and when the sea last receded from our continent, its inhabitants were not 

 very different from those which it continues to support. The strata around 

 us, therefore, may serve the double purpose of recording the great revolu. 

 tions which have taken place both in the animal kingdom and upon the sur- 

 face of the globe. Neither physical nor astronomical causes of revolution on 

 the earth's surface are sufficient to explain these changes. The irruption of 

 the sea and its retreat have neither been slow nor gradual ; the catastrophes 

 have been sudden, and the present surface of the worUis by no means o/ 

 vc!y ancient formation. This theory approximates more nearly to the Mo. 

 saical record than many others which we have noticed. In fact, modern 

 gfeologists are all eager to bear testimony to the actu.il occurrence of the de. 

 luge ; neither are they, generally speaking, guilty of disowning the act of 

 creation, though some of them have uttered incredible non.sense on this sub. 

 ject. M. Cuvier, indeed, by his catastrophes and epochs, agrees with many 

 scientific men in assigning a far higher .intiqnity to our globe, than is con. 

 eistent with the Mosaic account of the origin of things ; but no Ciiristian 

 will hesitate which to prefer ; and Granville Penn has abundantly demon, 

 strated, what indeed there could be no good reason to doubt, that the objec- 

 tions to the Christaiu Uevelation, founded on the facts of Geology, are a^ un- 

 philosophical as they are impious, 



I Woodward's Eosay towards a Natural Hiilory, p. Id 

 r 



