essentially necessary to determine ^he species to which 

 they belong. 



Neither of these marks, we may reasonably con- 

 clude, are observable in the cases which 1 have quoted, 

 for they are represented as being entire and perfect ; 

 and some of them transformed or changed, while in the 

 very act of seizing and enjoying their prey. 



It may be said, by some, that during the formation 

 of those rocks, which contain the fossil remains of 

 bodies so perfect, the earth was covered with salt wa- 

 ter but, even if admitted, it is no better calculated to 

 preserve those bodies from dissolution, than if subject- 

 ed the same time and at the same temperature, to fresh 

 water. The water of the Ocean, although salt, does 

 not constitute a pickle by which animal substances can 

 be preserved ; on the contrary, it is almost, if not equal- 

 ly as unfavorable to the preservation of animal matter 

 as that of fresh water. 



Hence the conclusion, that many of the secondary 

 rocks, and perhaps some others, were, in their forma- 

 tion, regulated by principles, or subject to laws that 

 were instantaneous in their operations, and during 

 which, the whole, mass of matter within the sphere of 

 their action, whether stony, earthy, animal, or vegeta- 

 ble, was suddenly changed into a solidified mass. 



That some invisible and incomprehensible means 

 have been employed in this business, may be inferred 

 from the opinions of several. 



The learned Cuvier, when speaking "of incrusta- 

 tions" of bodies, observes, " But we have no evidence 



