ten history
gives any account? This is only to be investigated, first, in examining
the nature of those solid bodies the history of which we want to know;
and, secondly, in examining the natural operations of the globe, in
order to see if there now exist such operations as, from the nature of
the solid bodies, appear to have been necessary for their formation.

"There are few beds of marble or limestone in which may not be found
some of those objects which indicate the marine object of the mass. If,
for example, in a mass of marble taken from a quarry upon the top of the
Alps or Andes there shall be found one cockle-shell or piece of coral,
it must be concluded that this bed of stone has been originally formed
at the bottom of the sea, as much as another bed which is evidently
composed almost altogether of cockle-shells and coral. If one bed of
limestone is thus found to have been of marine origin, every concomitant
bed of the same kind must be also concluded to have been formed in the
same manner.

"In those calcareous strata, which are evidently of marine origin,
there are many parts which are of sparry structure--that is to say, the
original texture of those beds in such places has been dissolved, and a
new structure has been assumed which is peculiar to a certain state of
the calcareous earth. This change is produced by crystallization, in
consequence of a previous state of fluidity, which has so disposed
the concerting parts as to allow them to assume a regular shape and
structure proper to that substance. A body whose external form has
been modified by this process is called a CRYSTAL; one whose internal
arrangement of parts is determined by it is said to be of a SPARRY
STRUCTURE, and this is known from its fracture.

"There are, in all the regions of the earth, huge masses of calcareous
matter in that crystalline form or sparry state in which, perhaps, no
vestige can be found of any organized body, nor any indication that such
calcareous matter has belonged to animals; but as in other masses this
sparry structure or crystalline state is evidently assumed by the marine
calcareous substances in operations which are natural to the globe,
and which are necessary to the consolidation of the strata, it does not
appear that the sparry masses in which no figured body is formed
have been originally different from other masses, which, being only
crystallized in part, and in part still retaining their original form,
have