There is therefore in stone, marble, &c. a great multitude of shells which are whole, beautiful, and so little changed, that they may
be easily compared with the shells preserved in cabinets, or found on the sea shores.
Woodward, in pages 23 and 24, proceeds, "There are, besides these, great multitudes of shells contained in stones, &c. which are entire and absolutely free from any such mineral mixture; which may be compared with those at this time seen on our shores, and which will be found not to have any difference, being precisely of the same figure and size; of the same substance and texture as the peculiar matter which composes them is the same, and is disposed and arranged in the same manner; the direction of their fibres and spiral lines are the same, the composition of the small lama formed by their fibres is the same in the one as the other; we see in the same part vestigia of tendons, by means of which the animal was fastened and joined to its shell; we see the same tubercles, stria and pipes; in short, the whole is alike, whether within or without the shell, in its cavity or on its convexity, in its substance or on its superficies. In other respects these fossil shell-fish are subject to the same common accidents as those of the sea; for example, they sometimes grow to one another, the least are adherent to the large; they have vermicular
conduits; pearls are found therein, and other similar matters which have been produced by the animal when it inhabited its shell; and what is very considerable, their specific gravity is exactly the same as that of their kind found actually in the sea; in all chymical experiments they answer exactly with sea-shells; when dissolved they have the same appearance, smell and taste; in a word, their resemblance is perfectly exact."
I have often observed with astonishment, as I have already said, whole mountains, chains of rocks, enormous banks of quarries, so full of shells and other wrecks of marine productions, that their bulk surpassed that of the matter in which they were deposited.
I have seen cultivated fields so full of petrified cockles that a man might pick them up with his eyes shut, others covered with cornu ammonis, and some with cardites; and the more we examine the earth, the more we shall be convinced that the number of these petrifications is infinite, and conclude, that it is impossible that all the animals which inhabited these shells existed at one time.
I have made an observation, that in all countries where we find a very great number of
petrified shells in the cultivated lands which are whole, well preserved, and totally apart, have been divided by the action of the frost, which destroys the stone and suffers the petrified shells to subsist a longer time.
This immense quantity of marine fossils found in so many places, proves that they could not have been transported thither by the deluge; for if these shells had been brought on the earth by a deluge, the greatest part would have remained on the surface of the earth, or at least would not have entered to the depth of seven or eight hundred feet in the most solid marble.
In all quarries these shells form a share of the internal part of the stone, sometimes externally covered with stalactites, which is much less ancient matter than stone, which contains shells. Another proof this happened not by a deluge is, that bones, horns, claws, &c. of land animals, are found but very rarely, and not at all in marble and other hard stone whereas if it was the effect of a deluge, where all must have perished, we should meet with the remains of land animals as well as those of the sea.