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CHAPTER VI. The first great difficulty which the mineral geo logy has created for itself, occurs in that amazing phenomenon, the mingled remains of animals of dif ferent species and climates, discovered, in exhaustless quantities, in the interior of all parts of the earth; so that, the exuvice of animal genera now existing only within the torrid zone, and those of genera which no longer exist at all, are found confusedly mixed together in the soils of the most northerly latitudes. “ In examining the mineral masses “ of the earth, (says the mineral geology,) “ the observer is astonished at the prodigious “ quantity of the fragments of animals and vege- “ tables which they contain. He will recol- “ lect the order, in which organic beings are “ distributed upon the surface of the globe; some, “ can only live in the bosom of the sea, others, in “ fresh-water; some, are only to be found within “ the torrid zone; while there are others, which “ would perish the moment they should be re- “ moved from the frigid zone; in a word, each “ species appears as it were fixed to an ele- “ ment, or climate, proper and peculiar to it. “ Whereas, in the strata of the earth every thing is “ out of its place; the remains of animals which “ can exist only in the depths of the ocean, are VOL. II. G
