How comes it that enlightened persons, who pique themselves on philosophy, have such various ideas on this subject? But doing so, we shall not content ourselves with having said that petrified shells are found in almost every part of the earth which has been dug, nor with having related the testimonies of authors of natural history; as it might be suspected, that with a view of some system, they perceived shells where there were none; but quote the authority of some authors, who merely remarked them accidentally, and whose observations went no farther than recognising those that were whole and in the best preservation. Their testimony will perhaps be of a still greater authority with people who have it not in their power to be assured of the truth of these facts, and who know not the difference between shells and petrifications. All the world may see the banks of shells in the hills in the environs of Pans, especially in the quarries of stone, as at Chaussée, near Séve, at Issy, Passy, and elsewhere. We find a great quantity of lenticular stones at Villers-Cotterets; these rocks are entirely formed thereof, and they are blended without any order with a kind of stony mortar, which binds them together. At Chaumont so great a quantity of petrified shells are found that the hills appear to be composed of nothing else. It is the same at Courtagnon, near Rheims, where there is a bank of shells near four leagues broad, and whose length is considerably more. I mention these places as being famous and striking the eye of every beholder. With respect to foreign countries, here follows the observations of some travellers: "In Syria and Phœnicia, the rocks, particularly in the neighbourhood of Latikea, are a kind of chalky substance, and it is perhaps from thence that the city has taken the name of the white promontory. Nakoura, anciently termed Scala Tyriorum, or the Tyrians Ladder, is nearly of the same nature, and we still find there, by digging, quantities of all sorts of shells, corals, and other remains of the deluge[237:A]."