30 Beautiful Shells. 



Properly to treat of fossil shells would require 

 a book of itself, and a large book too ; we can here 

 but allude to the subject, as a part, and a very- 

 important and interesting part, of the study of 

 Conchology ; more will be said about it in a volume 

 which we purpose writing for this series, on Rocks, 

 and the petrified organic remains found in and 

 about them. 



" Those relics of an older world, which tell 



Of changes slow or sudden, that have past 

 Over the face of Nature ; fossil shell, 



Shark's tooth, and bone of megatheran vast, 

 Turned into stone, and so preserved to show 

 Man of those things whereof he ought to' know." 



