a a 
Although many parts of the trilobite are now found e 
distributed through the rocks which contain the m, 
in such a manner as to lead to the conclusion, ' that — 
they. were separated by decomposition, after the 
death-of the animal; yet the perfect preservation of — 
others, andthe rolled and disjointed attitudes which — 
we should expect such creatures to assume when | 
disturbed, lead to the conjecture, that they have been 
often suddenly destroyed, and as suddenly enveloped 
in that earthy matter, which afterwards became an 
indurated rocks thus preventing the separation of 
the harder parts, by the slow process of decom- 
position.* ae 
The fossil remains of the trilobite family, are ane 
posed by most naturalists to belong to arace of beings 
now extinct; but from the strong analogy which ex- 
ists between them and certain species of crustaceous — 
animals now living, it is highly probable that they 
will yet be found alive. This opinion will not be . 
regarded as visionary, when it is recollected how 
large a portion of the surface of the earth is still un- 
explored by its enlightened and civilized inhabitants 
—how small the number of animated beings are yet 
known to the scientific world—and above all the fact, i 
that many animals as confidently declared to be pecu- 
liar to a former world, are now found to be bee 
the creatures at present in existence. This opinion, 
we think, is quite as spits and far more in 
