18 



ON THE PROCESS OF PETRIFACTION. 



as in the larger forms ? Who moulded it so artfully, and where are 

 the moulds?" 



As fossil organic remains, particularly shells and zoophytes, are 

 found, many hundred and even thousand feet below the present sur- 

 face of the earth, the first enquiry that naturally suggests itself is, 

 how did they come there ? U is impossible that the animals when 

 living, or their exuviae when dead, could pass through such vast 

 depths of solid rock. A few of them might fall into vertical fissures, 

 and remain there, but they could never in this way enter into stra- 

 ta composed almost entirely of organic remains. Beside, the strata 

 now deep under the dry ground are filled chiefly with the remains of 

 marine animals ; nor do we generally find these animal remains con- 

 fusedly aggregated ; different genera or species occupy particular 

 strata, or are associated with certain genera or species of the same 

 class, and never with others. It is therefore evident that they were 

 not brought into their present situations by vast inundations, and bu- 

 ried under the earthy matter which a subsequent inundation cast over 

 them. Neither could zoophytes, fish, or large reptiles, or the in- 

 habitants of bivalve or univalve shells, have lived and flourished in 

 the midst of solid stone. We are therefore led to the conclusion, 

 that each stratum which contains these organic remains was once the 

 uppermost covering of the globe, and that the animals, for the most 

 part, lived and died near where their bones or shells are now found, 

 and were covered by successive depositions of strata, on which fol- 

 lowing races of living beings flourished, and in like manner left their 

 remains. 



* Instances of reptiles found living in the midst of solid stone sometimes occur. 

 At the colliery on Roth well Haigh near Leeds, a living lizard or newt was found 

 in a bed of coal at the depth of 180 yards from the surface. I saw it in the year 

 1819 soon after its discovery ; it was preserved in spirits, and was about five inches 

 in length. I could not perceive that it differed from the living species. The ani- 

 mal had probably crept into the mine along one of the levels that drain off the 

 water, or down the sides of the shaft. The specimen is now in the possession of 

 the Rev. A. Sharp, Vicar of Wakefield. In all instances where toads have been 

 found in solid stone, it is reasonable to believe that they entered through fissures 

 that have been subsequently closed. That these animals will live without food 

 for a great number of years, is proved by the following circumstance. 



The late Sir Thomas Blacket, of Britton Hall in Yorkshire, had one cellar 

 which was opened only once a year, as it contained some particularly choice wine 

 which was never brought to table but on the annual celebration of his birthday, 

 v/hich was on the 21st of December, or St. Thomas's day. The butler, when 

 taking out the wine, observed a small toad crav/ling along the stone floor. He 

 placed the toad under a wine bottle, and thought no more of it till he went into the 

 cellar the following year, when, on removing the bottle, he was much surprised to 

 see the toad immediately leap. This circumstance he mentioned to Sir Thomas, 

 who descended with his visiters into the cellar to look at the toad, after which the 

 bottle was replaced, and the poor animal was kept a close prisoner till the suc- 

 ceeding year, when he was again uncovered, and found alive as before. The 

 same annual experiment v/as continued for more than twenty-five years, when 

 the wine was exhausted, the cellar cleared, and the toad, who was still living, was 

 thrown out of doors. Having heard of this circumstance, from a person who 

 had lived in the family part of the time, I questioned the old butler respecting it^ 

 and he fully confirmed the truth of the story. 



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