274 



It was with great satisfaction that he had to announce that 

 some very interesting communications would be made, for the 

 first of which they would be indebted to Professor Phillips, 

 who would now proceed with his communication. 



Professor Phillips, of St. Mary's Lodge, York, then 

 read his paper 



ON THE REMAINS OF MICROSCOPIC ANIMALS IN THE ROCKS 

 OF YORKSHIRE. BY JOHN PHILLIPS, ESQ., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



There is nothing more certainly proved, more generally 

 known, or more important in Geological reasoning, than the 

 fact that a very considerable portion of the stratified masses 

 of the globe is composed of the remains of organized beings. 

 Changed vegetables have yielded our coal — changed Zoophyta 

 compose the entire mass of some limestones — shells contribute 

 to augment the thickness of almost all the strata which rest 

 upon the Gneiss and Mica schist groups. 



It is also known, that, in very many instances, plants and 

 Zoophyta occur in a fossil state, on the very spots where they 

 were attached in life ; that they did actually grow and perish 

 where now we find their remains. Shells in like manner 

 appear with all the marks of being entombed on or near 

 to the very localities where their molluscous tenants respired , 

 and fed ; the valves of oysters are yet attached to the rock, 

 stone, or old shell on which the young ova fixed themselves ; 

 lithodomous Conchifers yet occupy the very holes which they 

 have bored ; Cardiacea and Veneridae yet display their valves, 

 as closed by the muscles in life, or partially opened by the 

 decay of these muscles, or separated by the decay of the 

 ligament, or finally broken and worn by the agitation of 

 the water in which they died. 



It follows, from investigations of this kind, that in the 

 same physical area of the earth's surface, but at successive 



I 



