126 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



of silicious fossils, and examples of this kind are the 

 different oysters (' des ostracites '), many terebratulae 

 (' des terebratulites '), trigonise, ammonites, echinites, 

 encrinites, etc. 



" The fossils of which I have just spoken are in 

 part buried in the earth, and others lie scattered over 

 its surface. They occur in all the exposed parts of 

 our globe, in the middle even of the largest con- 

 tinents, and, what is very remarkable, they occur on 

 mountains up to very considerable altitudes. In 

 many places the fossils buried in the earth form banks 

 extending several leagues in length." * 



Conchologists, he says, did not care to collect or 

 study fossil shells, because they had lost their lustre, 

 colors, and beauty, and they were rejected from col- 

 lections on this account as " dead " and uninteresting. 

 " But," he adds, " since attention has been drawn to 

 the fact that these fossils are extremely valuable 

 ■monuments for the study of the revolutions which have 

 taken place in different regions of the earth, and of 

 the changes which the beings living there have them- 

 selves successively undergone (in my lectures I have 

 always insisted on these considerations), consequently 

 the search for and study of fossils have excited 

 special interest, and are now the objects of the 

 greatest interest to naturalists." I) 



Lamarck then combats the views of several natu- 

 ralists, undoubtedly referring to Cuvier, that the fos- 



* In a footnote Lamarck refers to an unpublished work, which 

 probably formed a part of the Hydrogiologie, published in the follow- 

 ing year. *' Voyez a ce sujet mon ouvrage intituU: De Vinflnence du 

 mouvement des eatis sur la surface du globe terrestre, et des indices du 

 dlplacement contitiuel du bassin des mers, ainsi que de son transport 

 successif sur Us diffirens points de la surface du globe " (no date). 



