SCIENCE OF FOSSIL LIFE 323 
regarding fossils (1669) were based on the dissection of the 
head of a shark, by which means he showed an almost exact 
correspondence between certain glossy fossils and the teeth 
of living sharks. He applied his reasoning, that like effects 
imply like causes, to all manner of fossils, and clearly estab- 
lished the point that they should be regarded as the remains 
of animals and plants. The method of investigation prac- 
ticed by Steno was that “which has consciously or uncon- 
sciously guided the researches of palzontologists ever since.” 
Although his conclusions were well supported, they did not 
completely overthrow the opposing views, and become a fixed 
basis in geology. When, at the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury and the beginning of the nineteenth, fossil remains were 
being exhumed in great quantities in the Paris basin, Cuvier, 
the great French naturalist, reéstablished the doctrine that 
fossils are the remains of ancient life. An account of this 
will be given presently, and in the mean time we shall go on 
with the consideration of a question raised by the conclusions 
of Steno. 
Fossil Deposits Ascribed to the Flood.—After it began to 
be reluctantly conceded that fossils might possibly be the 
remains of former generations of animals and plants, there 
followed a period characterized by the general belief that these 
entombed forms had been deposited at the time of the 
Mosaic deluge. This was the prevailing view in the eight- 
eenth century. As observation increased and the extent and 
variety of fossil life became known, as well as the positions 
in which fossils were found, it became more difficult to hold 
this view with any appearance of reason. Large forms were 
found on the tops of mountains, and also lighter forms were 
found near the bottom. Miles upon miles of superimposed 
rocks were discovered, all of them bearing quantities of 
animal forms, and the interpretation that these had been 
killed and distributed by a deluge became very strained. But 
