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preceding pages. But the congregation of so many of these bodies 
in particular districts, as has been already noticed, particularly in 
France, in Switzerland, and in this island, still more strongly proves 
these to have been the identical parts where they lived. 
But should any doubt remain of the fossil zoophytes having inhabited 
the sea, in the identical places where they are now found, penetrated 
with and entombed in stone, those doubts must yield to the still 
more convincing circumstances which attend the fossil remains of 
encrini and pentacrini. The marine origin of these animals, we 
have seen, has been determined by the discovery of the recent re- 
mains of two or three pentacrini in the Atlantic Ocean: and that 
the fossil species must have had their existence where they are now 
found is plainly evinced, not only by the vast accumulations of 
distinct species in particular districts, but by several instances oc- 
curring, particularly with the lily encrinite, where, notwithstanding the 
extreme delicacy of their construction, even the more minute and 
more easily separable parts have been repeatedly found, in their 
mineralized state, preserved in almost their natural connection. 
In concluding the present volume, it seems necessary to remark 
that the circumstances observed whilst examining the several fossils 
hitherto noticed, have appeared to be sufficient to warrant the following 
conclusions. 
1st. That the water has rested for a considerable period over the 
general surface of the earth. 
2nd. That the mineralized zoophytes, found imbedded in different 
parts of the earth, and even in mountains of considerable 
height, have lived and died on those identical spots which, 
in the former world, constituted parts of the bottom of the 
ocean. 
3rd. That, in a previous state of this planet, many species of or- 
ganized beings existed which are not known to us in a recent 
