292 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



Camden, though one of them (I mean that which I sup- 

 pose to be an undescribed plant) I was wilhng to venture 

 only the one half, not knowing whether I may ever meet 

 with the like again. These three are much fairer than 

 those we have from Gloucestershire and Somerset, and 

 lodged in firmer stone. When you have viewed them 

 sufficiently, be pleased to take what you like out of the 

 Gloucestershire parcel, and return the rest to me at your 

 leisure. I heartily wish you may be able to satisfy 

 yourself upon sight of them, whether they are original 

 productions, or the remains of once real plants ; for I 

 must confess that at present I cannot acquiesce in the 

 opinion of their having been once mere plants growing 

 on the surface of the earth. I have in my custody a 

 piece of native silver, lodged in spar, brought, four years 

 since, out of the West Indies, whereof some part appears 

 out of the stone, in the form of a small spiral or twisted 

 capreoli ; and another part is a thin plate, having such a 

 superficies on each side, as if it had received an impres- 

 sion from a piece of fine cloth. Now, seeing that fossils 

 do naturally shoot into these forms, may we not reasonably 

 suspect they might also put on the shapes of leaves and 

 shells ? I have likewise several times seen somewhat like 

 the form of a piece of fine linen in flint, which seems to 

 require no less admiration than these plants, though we 

 are the more affected with them, because we find the 

 same natural things in the bowels of the earth as we 

 knew before on the surface. However, I am almost 

 fully convinced, and have been so for several years, that 

 many of those vertebrae and shells which I have met 

 with are the spoils of once living animals, my chiefest 

 reason for which is, because many of the vertebrae and 

 other bones are of a mere bony substance ; and several 

 shells which we meet with are scarce distinguishable in 

 consistence from the same species on the sea shores. 



Oxford, Sept. 13, —95. 



