PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS;

OR,

A HAND-BOOK

TO THE GALLERY OF ORGANIC REMAINS

OF

The British Museum.

BY

GIDEON ALGERNON MANTELL, ESQ. LL.D. F.R.S.

HONORARY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND, ETC.; AUTHOR OF
"THE MEDALS OF CREATION," "HE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY,"

Page 403.

"Grand monuments of Nature, which mark the past revolutions of the Globe."
Sir H. Davy.

HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

M DCCC LI.

TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE AND HONOURABLE

THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM,

HIS GRACE JOHN BIRD LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,

THOMAS LORD TRURO LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR,

RIGHT HON. CHARLES SHAW LEFEVRE SPEAKER OF
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

&c. &c. &c.

THIS ATTEMPT TO RENDER

THE GALLERY OF ORGANIC REMAINS

MORE INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE TO THE PUBLIC IN GENERAL,

AND MORE CONDUCIVE TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF

SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE,

BY CONNECTING THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY

OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SPECIMENS WITH DESCRIPTIONS

OF THEIR ORGANIC CHARACTERS AND RELATIONS,

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

BY

THE AUTHOR,

11th October, 1851,

CHESTER SQUARE,

PIMLICO, LONDON.

"If we look with wonder upon the great remains of human works, such as the columns of Palmyra, broken in the midst of the desert; the temples of Pæstum, beautiful in the decay of twenty centuries; or the mutilated fragments of Greek sculpture in the Acropolis of Athens, or in our own museums, as proofs of the genius of artists, and power and riches of nations now past away; with how much deeper feeling of admiration must we consider those grand monuments of nature which mark the revolutions of the Globe; continents broken into islands; one land produced, another destroyed; the bottom of the ocean become a fertile soil; whole races of animals extinct, and the bones and exuviæ of one class covered with the remains of another, and upon the graves of past generations—the marble or rocky tomb, as it were, of a former animated world; new generations rising, and order and harmony established, and a system of life and beauty produced out of chaos and death; proving the infinite power, wisdom, and goodness of the GREAT CAUSE of all things!"-SIR H. DAVY.