CONCHOLOG Y. 



fossil shell called the Orthoceras, is very obvious ; this 

 shell is very rarely found in a recent state, and then only 

 \ery small, about an inch long ; but in the fossil state, of 

 an immense size, two or three feet from end to end. When 

 curved at one end in the manner of the Pastoral Staff or 

 Crosier, it has been called the Litnus. The Cornu Ammonis 

 has not ^infrequently been found in the Island of Portland, 

 and in Devonshire, six or seven feet in circumference and 

 one foot or more in thickness, embedded in different strata 

 of quarry stone, upwards of sixty feet in depth. Near to 

 these have been numerous fragments of petrified Lizards, 

 Tortoises, and sometimes Crabs, in a most perfect stale of 

 preservation. Whatever changes however may have taken 

 place in the sea or land to occasion the above phenomena, 

 it is quite natural to suppose that they happened long before 

 the creation of man, since not the smallest remains have ever 

 been found of human bones petrified, in any country, those 

 which have been found in the rocks at Gibraltar (and once 

 supposed to be human) are found enclosed in silicieous 

 earth, but are known by comparison, to belong to some of 

 the i\pe or Monkey Tribes. 



