THEORY OF THE EARTH. 31 



with the same kind of productions, compose the hills 

 even to a greatheight. Sometimes the shells are so 

 numerous as to constitute the entire body of the 

 stratum. They are almost everywhere in such a 

 perfect state of preservation, that even the small- 

 est of them retain their most delicate parts, their 

 sharpest ridges, and their finest and tenderest pro- 

 cesses. They are found in elevations far above 

 the level of every part of the ocean, and in places 

 to which the sea could not be conveyed by any 

 existing cause. They are not only enclosed in 

 loose sand, but are often incrusted and penetra- 

 ted on all sides by the hardest stones. Every 

 part of the earth, every hemisphere, every conti- 

 nent, every island of any size, exhibits the same 

 phenomenon. We are therefore forcibly led to 

 believe, not only that the sea has at one period or 

 another covered all our plains, but that it must have 

 remained there for a long time, and in a state of 

 tranquillity ; which circumstance was necessary for 

 the formation of deposits so extensive, so thick, 

 in part so solid, and containing exuviae so perfect- 

 ly preserved. 



The time is past for ignorance to assert that 

 these remains of organized bodies are mere lusus 

 natum, productions generated in the womb of 

 the earth by its own creative powers. A nice and 

 scrupulous comparison of their forms, of their con- 

 texture, and frequently even of their composition, 

 cannot detect the slightest difference between 



