There is a pleasure to an intelligent mind in discovering the origin, or tracing the past history, of any natural object as revealed in its structure and growth. It is thus that the study of trees and plants, ferns and field flowers, occupies and del ... Read more

There is a pleasure to an intelligent mind in discovering the origin, or tracing the past history, of any natural object as revealed in its structure and growth. It is thus that the study of trees and plants, ferns and field flowers, occupies and delights us. And a similar interest would be found to attach to Seaside Pebbles, as one branch of mineralogy, if we could once come to observe and understand them. But while the marine shells of England have been all numbered and classified, and even the seaweeds are emerging out of dim confusion into the order of botanical arrangement, there is no popular work extant on the subject of our pebbles. Dr. Mantell, indeed, published an elegant little volume, entitled “Thoughts on a Pebble;” but he therein treats of a single species, the Choanite; whereas, we have other fossil creatures beside Choanites preserved in the heart of siliceous pebbles; and our shores yield from time to[iii] time varieties of agate and jasper, differing from the oriental, and some of them of great beauty. Less