But the
fossil bodies which form the present subject of inquiry, belonged to
former land, and are found only in the sea-born strata of our present
earth. It is to these alone that we appeal, in order to prove the
certainty of former events.
Mineralised wood, therefore, is the object now inquired after; that wood
which had been lodged in the bottom of the sea, and there composed part
of a stratum, which hitherto we have considered as only formed of the
materials proper to the ocean. Now, what a profusion of this species of
fossil wood is to be found in the cabinets of collectors, and even in
the hands of lapidaries, and such artificers of polished stones! In some
places, it would seem to be as common as the agate.
I shall only mention a specimen in my own collection. It is wood
petrified with calcareous earth, and mineralised with pyrites. This
specimen of wood contains in itself, even without the stratum of stone
in which it is embedded, the most perfect record of its genealogy.
It had been eaten or perforated by those sea worms which destroy the
bottoms of our ships. There is the clearest evidence of this truth.
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