OF CURIOSITY. 175 
countries other (hells are made ufe of for vari- 
ous purpofes ; fome inftead of horns to blow 
with at their religious ceremonies ; fome for 
veffels for wafhing; fome for cups; fome for 
boxes ; fome for inlaying ; all of them far ex- 
ceeding the bed: artificial works. 
Nor are thofe innumerable petrifactions , fb 
various in fpecies, and ftru&ure, to be looked 
upon as vain curiofities. We find in our moun- 
tains, and even in the middle of Hones, as it 
were embaumed, animals , JLells , corals , which 
are not to be found alive in any part of Eu- 
rope, Thefe alone, were there no other rea- 
fon, might put us upon looking back into an- 
tiquity, and confidering the primitive form of 
the earth, its increafe, and metamorphoiis. 
This is a fubject, that would require a whole 
volume to treat it amply as it deferves. 
Wild beafts , and ravenous birds , though 
they feem to difiurb our private ceconomy, 
are not without their ufes ; which we fhould 
be fenfible of, if they were extirpated a . 
When 
* Thus in Suffolk, and in fome parts of Norfolk, the 
farmers find it their intereft to encourage the breed of rooks, 
as the only means to free their grounds from the grub, 
from which the tree or blind beetle comes, Vid. Lifter’s 
Gaedacft. p. 265. pi. III. Scarabaeus, Melolontha. S. N. 10, 
p. 351. which in jts grub ftate deftroys the roots of com 
