30 



be perfectly free to escape, is it likely that buried organized 

 bodies could easily release their elements? More probably 

 they undergo some similar, internal change, varying ac- 

 cording to the adjacent elements or compounds, amount of 

 pressure, &c. 



Thus every passing generation of organic life has proba- 

 bly left traces of the matter that once formed it, incorpo- 

 rated with the solid strata of the earth's crust. Of the 

 relative amount of such matter, no idea can be formed. 

 All the dead organisms as yet undecomposed — all organic 

 fragments, and all coral and indusial formations hold mo- 

 bile elements in solid form ; if this were not true, we should 

 have no organically enriched soils, no deposits of guano, 

 no peat or coal formations, no shell or bone beds, no or- 

 ganic remains in the crust of the earth. 



Bat these we have. The rocky tablets of the crust disclose 

 these organic remains throughout their entire depth. 

 Aqueous and fossiliferous have become synonymous as ap- 

 plied to the earth's strata. 



The question as to how much matter has thus changed 

 form will depend upon future investigation, a better un- 

 derstanding of mineralization, a more careful analj^sis of 

 fossil organic remains, and accurate comparisons of the 

 relative areas of land and water at different geological 

 areas,— a work happily begun. 



Whenever organic remains, either those of recent date 

 or of the most ancient strata, are exposed to disintegration 

 and decomposition, they are in a condition to be returned 

 to their original elements. When coal is burned, the mat- 

 ter the atmosphere and water lost thousands and thousands 

 of years ago, they thus once again receive ; so with the 

 washing of salt beds and other solid deposits, the mobile 

 elements of matter only recover this small fraction of the 

 entire amount thev previouslv lost. 



