PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 7 



A circumstance which is easily explained on the supposition, that they 

 died in consequence of losing the support of the atmosphere in which 

 they had lived. 



6thly. Kesuming our former presumption, that the earth was in- 

 habited previously to the chaotic period, and adding the further inference, 

 that the whole of that former order of creation had been destroyed 

 at that period, we are plainly taught, that aU the remains of that order, 

 were, during the same period, subjected to the various operations of the 

 immense body of water, with which the earth was covered. 



This again, is exactly what Geology seems to require, from the various 

 states in which fossil remains are found. 



Though some, from having probably been protected by inequalities in 

 the earth's surface, or from other unknown causes, are fou^nd in almost 

 the exact state in which they were at the moment of death ; others have 

 evidently been subjected to the greatest violence. The hardest animal 

 substances have been, as it were, ground to the smallest pieces, by the 

 action of the waters ; and then, by the subsequent stagnation of the 

 waters, they have been suffered to settle into a mass of compact rock. 

 Perhaps also, the confusion as to climate which is observable in the fossil 

 creation, may be attributable to the force of the chaotic waters *. 



Let us now turn our attention to a few points, in the account 

 which Moses gives, of the present order of things. 



animals, to which such a catastrophe would be but partially, and accidentally prejudicial. Of 

 Noah's deluge we may observe, that the water subsided gradually, allowing time for most of 

 the water animals to escape, and leaving the orders of testacea to be almost the only sufferers. 

 Probably the aquatic remains of this event, which may be found in various parts of the world, 

 will, on inspection, prove to be chiefly of this description. I cannot allow the present opportunity 

 to pass, without noticing, that the deluge (however inconsiderable it may have been in its effects, 

 when compared with chaos, or the end of the world,) is a most important event with reference 

 to our present subject, as it affords an instance of a revolution " sui generis ;" a revolution, in 

 which a partial destruction of the organized creation must have taken place; and it is well 

 worthy of remark, that this partial destruction must have affected in a more especial degree 

 that species of animals, whose remains are found in such preponderating quantities in the 

 bowels of the earth. 



Cuvier at the conclusion of his essay, remarks, that it has not yet been explained why 

 shells should be found almost every where, while fish are confined to a few places. 



* Vide page 12, and note. 



