I have often examined quarries, the banks of which were filled with shells; I have seen entire hills composed of them, and chains of rocks which contained them throughout their
whole extent. The quantity of these marine productions is astonishing, and the number in many places so prodigious, that it appears scarcely possible that any should now remain in the sea; it is by considering this innumerable multitude of shells, that no doubt is left of our earth having been a long time under the water of the ocean. The quantity found in a fossil, or petrified state, is beyond conception, and it is only from the number of those that have been discovered that we could possibly have formed an idea of their multiplicity. We must imagine, like those who reason on matters they never saw, that shells are only found at random, dispersed here and there, or in small heaps, as oyster shells thrown before our doors; on the contrary, they form mountains, are met with in shoals of 100 or 200 miles length, nay, they may sometimes be traced through whole provinces in masses of 50 or 60 feet thick. It is from these circumstances alone that we can reason on the subject.
We cannot give a more striking example on this subject than the shells of Touraine. The following is the description given of them by the historian of the Academy[220:A].
"The number of figured stones and fossil shells found in the bowels of the earth were remarked in all ages and nations, but they were considered merely as the sports of nature, and even by philosophers themselves, as the productions of chance or accident; they regarded them with a degree of surprise, but passed them over with a slight attention, and all this phenomena perished without any fruit for the progress of knowledge. A potter in Paris, who knew neither Latin nor Greek, towards the end of the 16th century, was the first man who dared affirm, in opposition to the learned, that the fossil shells were real shells formerly deposited by the sea in those places where they were found; that animals, and particularly fish, had given to stones all these different figures, &c. and he desired the whole school of Aristotle to contradict his proofs. This was Bernard Palissy, as great a natural genius as nature could form: his system slept near 100 years, and even his name was almost forgot. At length the ideas of Palissy were revived in the mind of several philosophers; and science has profited by all the shells and figured stones the earth furnishes us with; perhaps they are at
present become only too common, and the consequences drawn from them too incontestable.
"Notwithstanding this, the observations presented by M. Reaumer must appear wonderful. He discovered a mass of 130 million, 680 thousand cubical fathoms of shells, either whole or in fragments, without any mixture of stone, earth, sand, or other extraneous matter: hitherto fossil shells have never appeared in such an enormous quantity, nor without mixture. It is in Touraine this prodigious mass is found, more than 36 leagues from the sea; this is perfectly known there, as the farmers of that province make use of these shells, which they dig up, as manure for their lands, to fertilize their plains, which otherwise would be absolutely sterile.
"What is dug from the earth, and which generally is no more than eight or nine feet deep, are only small fragments of shells, very distinguishable as fragments, for they retain their original channels and hollows, having only lost their gloss and colour, as almost all shells do which we find in the earth. The smallest pieces, which are only dust, are still distinguishable because they are perfectly of the same matter
as the rest, as well as of the whole shells which are sometimes found. We discover the species as well in the whole shells as in the larger fragments. Some of these species are known at Poictou, others belong to more remote coasts. There are even fragments of madrepores, coral, and other productions of the sea; all this matter in the country is termed Fallun, and is found wherever the ground is dug in that province for the space of nine leagues square. The peasants do not dig above twenty feet deep, because they think it would not repay them for their trouble, but they are certainly deeper. The calculation of the quantity is however taken upon the supposition of only 18 feet and 2200 fathoms to the league. This mass of shells of course exceeds the calculation, and possibly contains double the quantity.
"In physical points the smallest circumstances, which most people do not think worthy of remarking, sometimes lead to consequences and afford great lights. M. de Reaumer observed, that all these fragments of shells lie horizontally, and hence he has concluded that this infinity of fragments does not proceed from the heap being formed at one time, or of whole shells, for the uppermost, by their weight,
would have crushed the others, and of course their fallings would have given an infinity of different positions. They must, therefore, have been brought there by the sea, either whole or broken, and necessarily placed horizontal; and although the extreme length of time was of itself sufficient to break, and almost calcine the greatest part, it could not change their position.