ESSAY 



ON 



THE THEORY OF THE EARTH, 



1. Preliminary Observations. 



J_T is my object, in the following work, to travel 

 over ground which has as yet been little explored, 

 and to make my reader acquainted with a species 

 of Remains, which, though absolutely necessary 

 for understanding the history of the globe, have 

 been hitherto almost uniformly neglected. 



As an antiquary of a new order, I have been 

 obliged to learn the art of deciphering and re- 

 storing these remains, of discovering and bringing 

 together, in their primitive arrangement, the scat- 

 tered and mutilated fragments of which they are 

 composed, of reproducing, in all their original pro- 

 portions and characters, the animals to which these 



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