FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 6 



the soil. These remains of organized bodies were formerly 

 considered as mere lusus naturcB^ generated in the bosom of 

 the earth by its creative powers. But this absurdity has been 

 completely refuted, by a thorough examination of their forms 

 and composition. It has been clearly demonstrated that there 

 is no difference of texture between the bodies of which we now 

 speak, and those which exist in our present seas. 



The marine genera, found in the most ancient, do not ap- 

 pear to be as numerous as those contained in the more recent 

 strata ; and it is worthy of remark that the fossil organic bodies 

 of every description, differ more from existing species in pro- 

 portion to the antiquity of the strata in which they are found. 

 Those very ancient formations, to which the name of transi- 

 tion-strata has been given, rest upon the granite or other 

 primitive rocks, which, as far as we can tell, form the substra- 

 tum of the globe, and in which no organic remains have ever 

 been discovered. We are thus led to the knowledge of a fact 

 equally astonishing and certain, namely, that there was a 

 period when life did not exist upon this earth ; the era, indeed, 

 of its commencement is clearly observable. This evidently 

 proves the doctrine of a creation, and utterly confounds the 

 absurd speculations of atheism respecting the eternity of the 

 world, and the generative powers of inanimate matter. 



The mode in which these primitive strata were formed is a 

 mooted question. Some are of opinion that the ancient granite 

 owed its origin to a fluid which once held every thing in solu- 

 tion, and others, that it was the first substance that became 

 fixed, on the cooling of a mass of matter in a state of fusion. 

 The Marquess de La Place has conjectured, that the materials 

 of which the earth is composed were at first of an elastic form, 

 and became, in cooling, of a liquid, and, finally, of a solid con- 

 sistence. The recent experiments of M. Mitcherlich, says the 

 Baron Cuvier, go far in support of this opinion. That gentle- 

 man has completely succeeded in composing and crystallizing 

 several of the mineral species which enter into the composition 



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