164 SANDSTONE PETRIFACTIONS. 



so it is only by the study of petrifactions that we are 

 likely to be able to account for the formation of strata, 

 or to ascertain the relative ages of the mineral 

 masses of the crust of the earth. If there had 

 not existed any petrifactions or fossil remains of or- 

 ganized bodies, it is not easy to see how a theory of 

 the earth should ever have been thought of. Philo- 

 sophers would naturally have rested satisfied (as the 

 vulgar do,) with the notion that all things were ori- 

 ginally formed in the state in which they now are. 



But when they observed the remains of organized 

 bodies in situations in which, beforehand, they could 

 not have been expected to be ; when they ob- 

 served sea-shells many hundred miles distant from 

 the sea, and some thousands of feet above its level ; 

 when they found those and other fossil remains 

 many fathoms below the surface of the ground, and 

 imbedded in vast masses of solid mountain rock; 

 nay, when the remains of animals were discovered, 

 of which no prototypes now appear, or whose species 

 we have every reason to conclude have been long ago 

 extinguished; what philosopher would not spe- 

 culate on the causes of such surprising effects? 

 Hence arose, as I already noticed, our various theo- 

 ries of the earth. But it was the celebrated Wer- 

 ner, the great Founder, we may say, of Experimen- 

 tal Mineralogy, that first pointed out with precision, 

 the importance of the study of the fossil remains of 

 organized bodies, towards enabling us to arrive at 

 any thing like a rational theory. It was he who 



