1896.] Fossils and Fossilization. 903 
‘These casts form a large group of fossils, and sometimes afford 
most important information as to the vascular markings and 
muscular tissues of both crustaceans and brachiopods, though 
they often perplex the paleontologist by their meagre and un- 
satisfactory characters. Again, the moulds of exteriors, the 
phase of preservation complementary to casts must be classed 
with “ fossils.” Such impressions often present the superficial 
ornamentation of shells, and by filling them with soft material 
as sulphur, wax, or rubber, a reproduction of the original or- 
ganism in size and form can be satisfactorily obtained. The 
application of the word “fossil” may be even extended to 
designate those doubtful evidences of organic life, such as the 
mixture of the minerals, serpentine and calcite, which have 
yielded, upon microscopic inspection, some suggestions of or- 
ganic structure, and with which the famous name of Eozoon 
has been associated, and over which a notable controversy 
exists to-day. However the term “fossil” is used, its exact 
meaning from fodeo to dig, refers to the most common circum- 
stance connected with the search for fossils, viz. : the excava- 
tion of rocks or earth, and hence, literally, a fossil is a thing 
dug out, implying a past stage of existence in which it has 
undergone burial and hinting at its subsequent exhumation. 
‘This association has no invariable applicability. Fossils are 
found exposed upon ancient beaches very slightly covered, as 
in the shell beds at Beauport, New York, where the valves of 
Saxicava rugosa’ “ form a bleached white mass, twelve feet thick, 
perfectly stratified, and with only sufficient sandy matter to 
form the lines of division between the strata” (E. Emmons, 
‘Geol. N. Y., Pt. IV, p. 129); they are spread upon the surface 
-of wide extents of territory as in parts of Syria where thousands 
-of cardiums, in the form of casts, are seen upon the road and 
in the fields, from which wagon-loads could be secured, though 
not a fragment ofa shell or a piece of a hinge-tooth, for purposes 
-of identification, are visible (O. Fraas, Aus dem Orient, Pt: II, 
p. 73). Similarly, in the cretaceous beds of Texas in the 
1A Lamellibranch or bivalve shell now found living along our coast, from 
-Georgia to the Arctic Ocean; very common from Massachusetts Bay to Labrador, 
-occurring from low-water mark to 50 fathoms or more. 
