We need not here repeat, that these various remains are imbedded, in whichever of all these states they may be found, in rocks, or in alluvia; but the quantities in which they are thus found is often very remarkable. In Turenne, not far from the sea, Reaumur was at the trouble of com puting the bulk of a mass of rock entirely formed of shells, without any earth, and he found that it measured 130,680,000 cubic fathoms. The miliolites of France form, in the same manner, enormous beds, consisting en tirely of shells. Indeed, the quarries at Chaussee, near Seve, at Issy, Passy, and other places, contain stone, used for building, which is entirely composed of shells. • The same is the case at Villers-Cotterets, and at Chaumont, where whole hills are composed entirely of shells. An immense bed of the same kind is also found at Courtag non, near Rheims; but, indeed, the instances of this na ture in that country are innumerable. In our own island, if we cannot produce examples so striking, yet all our oolites, including Bath, Purbeck, Portland, and other well known building stones, are entirely composed of the frag ments and sand of shell-fish ; as are many of the smaller calcareous beds in different parts of the country, which it would be endless to enumerate.
Of course they are found in almost all parts of the world, since there are few countries in which there are not se condary strata. A few of these examples will amuse the general reader, and will at least add to his geographical, if not to his geological information. They abound in Syria and Phoenicia ; limestones of this character, in fact, form ing the ridges of hills in Palestine. The stones of the last temple, which Josephus tells us were sixty feet long by ten thick—those wonderful stones, which our Saviour pointed out to the apostles when he predicted the impend ing downfall of all that splendour, abound in shells; and it is in rocks of this nature that the ancient Jewish sepul chres are excavated. Chamx and pectines are among the shells found in these rocks.
Herodotus, as we before observed, had the quantity of shells in Egypt. Between Suez and Cairo, as well as all over the mountains of Lybia, near the ca taracts, and, indeed, through all the valley where it is not covered with the alluvial soil, organic remains of this kind abound. Among them are echini, with various bi valve and univalve turbinated shells; and the pyramids are both founded on, and built of, a kind of oolite, which is full of small nummulites and other shells, once sup posed to have been petrified lentils, and other seeds, left by the workmen employed on these stupendous fabrics. Corals are also found in the Egyptian limestones. In
Lebanon, the skeletons of fishes occur, together with co rals; and the fossil remains of Mount Carmel have been long known to the superstitious by the name of Lapides Judaici. All our oriental travellers have observed similar appearances through many parts of Persia, India, and Northern Asia ; and it is often amusing to read the mar velling accounts which were given of them, when their real nature and origin were not so well understood as they are now.
In South America they have been found at greater ele vations than in any other part of the world. They abound in several parts of Chili ; and in Peru they were observed by Ulloa at the height of 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. Similar observations have been made by Kalm in North America, and by Pallas in Siberia. In Mount Jura they are found at great elevations, as well as in several parts of the Alps, of the Pyrenees, and the Appennines. But we need not dwell longer on this part of the subject, as, in hereafter examining some of the geological ques tions connected with it, some of the most important cases will necessarily come under review. We shall therefore proceed to consider the several organic bodies themselves, according to their relations as living objects, dividing them first into vegetables and animals, and then into such further subdivisions as may appear necessary. But as the number of species and genera is enormous, we can only select from each division such kinds as are most remark able, either for t .eir intrinsic interest or curiosity, or from their geological importance, or from some other pcculiari ties connected with them. To treat of the whole would re quire in itself a large volume.
• Of Vegetable Remains preserved in Chalcedony A very detailed account of these substances is given by Dr. Macculloch, in the Transactions of the Geological So ciety of London, with numerous figures ; and, in that pa per, he also points out those arborizations which have sometimes been mistaken for plants, giving, at the same time, methods of distinguishing them. Such remains have also been described by Daubenton and Blumenbach ; but, until the publication of the paper above mentioned, the reality of them was still questioned by those mineralo gists who, having never seen any but the pseudo-speci mens, consisting generally of manganese, of oxide of iron, and of chlorite, had imagined that the whole were of the same nature. It is satisfactory here to see that there is no difficulty whatever in accounting for them, and that the mode in which delicate vegetables have thus become in volved, is perfectly simple, and consistent with the pro duction of chalcedony.