Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber Note

To preserve cross-references between the volumes, both have been combined into one. Text emphasis denoted by _Italics_. Whole and fractional parts of numbers displayed as 123-4/5.

THE

Medals of Creation;

OR,

FIRST LESSONS IN GEOLOGY,

AND

THE STUDY OF ORGANIC REMAINS.

VOL. I.

"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 tombs, 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.

_J. Dinkel del. G. Scharf lithog._ _Printed by Hullmandel & Walton_

MEDALS OF CREATION]

THE

Medals of Creation;

OR,

FIRST LESSONS IN GEOLOGY,

AND

THE STUDY OF ORGANIC REMAINS.

BY

GIDEON ALGERNON MANTELL, LL.D. F.R.S. V.P.G.S.

PRESIDENT OF THE WEST LONDON MEDICAL SOCIETY, ETC. AUTHOR OF THE
WONDERS OF GEOLOGY, ETC.

"Voilà! une nouvelle espèce de médailles, beaucoup plus importantes, et incomparablement plus anciennes, que toutes celles des Grecs et des Remains!"--Knorr, _Monumens des Catastrophes_.

IN TWO VOLS.--VOL. 1.

CONTAINING

Fossil Vegetables, Zoophytes, Echinoderms, and Molluscs.

SECOND EDITION, ENTIRELY REWRITTEN.

LONDON:

HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

MDCCCLIV

LONDON:

R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.

TO

MY SONS,

WALTER MANTELL,

OF WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND,

AND

REGINALD NEVILLE MANTELL,

OF KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES,

This Work

MY LAST ATTEMPT TO PROMOTE THE ADVANCEMENT

OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE,

IS MOST AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

G. A. M.

Chester Square, Pimlico,
_Feb. 3, 1853_.

[The above having been penned by the much-lamented author of the "Medals" some months previous to his decease, it is retained in this posthumous edition of his favourite work as an appropriate dedication, dictated by the parental affection of one of the chief promoters of geological science in England, and addressed to his absent sons, whose works have already shown them to be enthusiastic labourers in the same field, both at home and in distant parts of the world.]

PREFATORY NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The untimely Decease of the lamented Author of the "Medals of Creation" during the progress of the present edition through the press has unavoidably delayed its publication.

The First Volume has been wholly rewritten by the Author.

The materials of the Second Volume had been elaborately revised and much enlarged by Dr. Mantell previously to his Decease. The Editor has laboured to carry out the intentions of the Author in rendering this part of the Work as complete a compendium as possible of the Palæontological history of the Organic Beings of which it treats, and in adapting it to the requirements of the Geological Student of the present time.

The various sources from which palæontological and zoological information has been derived have, for the most part, been adverted to in the text or in the footnotes. The Editor, however, has especially to acknowledge the kindness of Mr. J. Morris, F.G.S., in allowing him to refer to the proof-sheets of the forth-coming edition of his "Catalogue of British Fossils," and thereby affording him important assistance in making correct statements of the distribution of the Fossil Remains of the Crustacea, Insecta, and Vertebrata, in the strata of the British Islands.

T. Rupert Jones.