FOSSILS THEIR NATURE AND ARRANGE- 

 MENT. 



THE TERMS FOSSIL AND STJB-FOSSIL SCIENCE OF PALEONTOLOGY 

 FOSSILS, HOW IMBEDDED AND PRESERVED THEIR IMPORTANCE 

 IN GEOLOGY INDICATORS OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS IN 

 THE PAST OF NATURE AND KIND OF LIFE DURING SUCCESSIVE, 

 PERIODS OF WORLD-HISTORY DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING PALE- 

 ONTOLOGICAL RESEARCH ORGANISMS MOST PERFECTLY PRE- 

 SERVED PROCESSES OF PETRIFACTION CONDITIONS IN WHICH 



FOSSILS USUALLY OCCUR REQUISITE SKILL FOR THEIR INTER- 

 PRETATION BOTANICAL AND ZOOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT OF 

 THIS PRELIMINARY KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY TO THE STUDY OF 

 GENERAL GEOLOGY. 



WHATEVER may have been the meaning which our fore- 

 fathers attached to the term fossil (Lat. fossttis, dug up), 

 every man and woman of ordinary intelligence now under- 

 stands that it refers to the remains of plants and animals 

 found in the crust of the earth, and more or less petrified 

 or converted into stony matter. "Where these remains 

 whether trunks, branches, or leaves, bones, teeth, or shells 

 occur in recent and superficial accumulations, they appear 

 little altered in texture, and are usually looked upon as 

 sub-fossil, or only partially fossil ; but when they are im- 

 bedded in the older and harder strata, the stony conversion 

 is in general complete, and they are then regarded as true 

 fossils or petrifactions. Wherever they are found their 

 history excites a lively interest ; and minds altogether un- 

 attracted by the physical record of the earth are often 



