DETKBMINATION 07 SDCCS88ITB tHAXi. SOI 



not annihilated : they were embaUned, as it were, 

 where they died; and we can now dig out from the 

 bowels of the rock, an impression, or the frame itself, 

 of a fish, as clear and distinct as when it first died; 

 or a plant, with every little ft-athery leaf preserved, 

 as perfect as when it waved on that unknown land, or 

 floated in that ancient sea, long centuries before man 

 drew the breath of life. 



These are the records which enable us to reed the 

 early history of our globe; these mute witnesses, each 

 in its own peculiar rock, identify that rock, in what- 

 ever part of tbo world it may occur. There is a 

 Sadual proijressinn in their appearance. The loweifc 

 Biliferoi! is, and thoM 



of specie> .it now exist 



As we come down trom this most remote antiquity, 

 the fossils increase in number, and also in their like- 

 ness to the forms of living species; until at last, ia 

 the very latest fom *' we find both animals and 

 plants nearly or q I i>nl with some of our ex- 



isting kinds. A sk, ,. I, . ;.• can always tell, 



from its fossils, at ui it: ; i e series any rock 



belongs. 



The number of strati _\ great, but it 



is not my prewnt p en to name them: I shall 



only show, how a m.^..^ ..^Igc of their compositioo 

 beu^ u|>on the practical cultivation of the soiL 



ncnoN n. or thb BtrvsamcBs m ooMrannf aikmm 



THK TARiOim ROCKS. 



All of our rocks, both stratlfiMl and aiislntificd» 

 dtfur m eompositioa most ni We may tako 



&8t, two examples of the {.••n.a.^, or wstnittfiedl 

 class, grmtUe^ and basait, or brap, 



(" ' roe minerals, caUod quarts, 



f irtx is noCfatng iwt silica; 



ill tlio ftUd«p«ur aiMl mica, there is aka ijliot Willi 



