STONES 
Which reprefent the coyicave or interior 
form of bivalve fhells, in which 
they were moulded when Joft. 
OODward’s* account bf their for- 
^ ▼ mation is as follows. “ That at the tiaie 
of the deluge, while fhells, fiiftained and upheld 
in the waters, floated, together with Tand, and 
other the conftituent matter of ftone, flint, fpar, 
and all other minerals, reduced to their primary 
particles, the difiblved matter of thefe, entering 
the fhells, filled them up, fo that they gave their 
own form, or figure, to the matter fo received 
into them, and were as Matrices and Moulds to it; 
that of thefe fhells, whether fo filled or empty, 
finking together with the matter of ffone, clay, 
chalk, and all the refl that this terreftrial globe is 
compofed of, are made thofe flrata, of which 
this 
* Woodward’s Nat. Hill, of the Earth illuftrated and 
inlarged. p, 27, 
