290 FOSSIL GEOLOGY OF UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



FOSSIL GEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Definition. — Paleontology. — Buckland's Remarks on the Study 

 of Fossil Geology. — Tournefort's Idea of Fossils. — John 

 Locke's do. Petrifactions. — How Produced.— Illustrations.-^ 

 Organic Remains. — How Coloured. — Fossil Mammalia of the 

 United States.— Big Bone Lick.— Mastodon. — Megatherium, 

 &c. — Period when these Remains were Deposited. — Most re- 

 markable Forms of Fossil Organization. — Encrinital or Cri- 

 noideal Limestone. 



By a fossil is understood any body, or the traces 

 of the existence of any body, whether animal or 

 vegetable, which has been buried in the earth by 

 natural causes. That department of geology which 

 treats of fossil zoology and fossil botany has lately 

 received the appellation of Paleontology, from 

 "palaios" ancient, and " ontology ," the science of be- 

 ings. " The study of organic remains," says Buck- 

 land, " forms the peculiar feature and basis of mod- 

 ern geology, and is the main cause of the progress 

 this science has made since the commencement of 

 the present century. We find certain families of or- 

 ganic remains pervading strata of every age, under 

 nearly the same generic forms which they present 

 among existing organizations. Other families, both 

 of animals and vegetables, are limited to particular 

 formations, there being certain points where entire 

 groups ceased to exist, and were replaced by others 

 of a different character. The changes of genera 

 and species are still more frequent; hence it has 

 been well observed, that to attempt an investiga- 

 tion of the structure and revolutions of the earth, 

 without applying minute attention to the evidences 

 afforded by organic remains, would be no less ab- 



