8 
The illustrious Bergman elegantly denominates fossils, medals of 
CREATION ; and, indeed, a very little advancement, in the study of 
this science, is necessary to discover the peculiar propriety of the 
application of this term to the subjects of our present inquiry. 
By these medals of creation we are taught, that innumerable 
beings have lived, of which not one of the same kind is known any 
longer to exist — ^that immense beds, composed of the spoils of these 
animals, extending for many miles under ground, are met with in 
many parts of the globe — that many enormous chains of mountains 
are vast monuments, in which these remains of former ages are 
entombed — ^that, laying thus together, in a rude and confused mass, 
they have suffered those changes, by which they have become the 
chief constituent parts of the limestone, which forms the humble 
cottage of the peasant: and of the marble, which adorns the 
splendid palace of the prince. 
Surrounded, as we are, by the remains of a former world, it is 
truly surprising, that, in general, so little curiosity and attention are 
excited by them. Wherever civilized society exists, these wrecks of 
the earliest ages may be found, yielding to man the most important 
benefits. Changed in their appearance, during the revolution of 
innumerable ages, they sometimes manifest but slight traces of their 
former modes of existence : and, having already performed several 
important offices in the economy of nature, they are now offered to 
man, in a state which must prompt him to the exercise of industry, 
by supplying him with fit materials, on which his faculties may be 
exerted. Varying infinitely in their nature and substance, according 
to the combinations into which they have entered, they become 
useful to man in numberless ways. 
Not the smallest or rudest village is to be seen, in the neighbour- 
hood of a limestone mountain or quarry, but it may be discovered 
that these have been ransacked to furnish the foot-path, or to aid 
