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= An Attempt Towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England Volume 1 = An Attempt Towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England is a book/catalog of the many prehistoric and geological discoveries of the naturalist John Woodward. Written in 1695, and published in 1728, a month after he died, the book contains the first of three books filled with many different geological and paleontological discoveries of his travels. He also wrote many other books addressing some interesting topics such as Men and Masculinity, The travels of the ocean, and Trans Math, Developing a mathematical sense. Because this book was written in 1728, some of the information is incorrect but still valid. In his table of contents he gives a very detailed list of what and where exactly what is in the book:

Earths
This section talks about clay, mud, dirt, terracotta, what each are often to hold such as minerals or iron. Because this is a catalogue and not a textbook, he gives a brief and very on point description of each version of earths that he found. It would be impossible to restate them all but know that it mentions the use of earths in pottery and china a lot.

Sands
This part of the book is basically John Woodward trying to label and name every minuscule grain of sand that he took from a jar of beach sand.

Gravel
In this part john laments at the fact that much of England cannot afford real gravel and instead uses flint and pebbles. He also explains that there was a fort made entirely out of packed sand and rocks.

Stone
By stone he meant fossils. But what he talks about here is the resemblance of some designs in the stone to be akin to some birds and reptiles that he has seen alive and breathing. He theorized they were somehow turned or encased in stone. This of course is a fossil and he calls it that too. He also makes a general note of how fossils are brought to the surface and studied. He also talks a lot about limestone and references the pages to talking about “mice in stone”

Marble
Labeled as the third class of his books he does not mention much on this chapter

Mineral Delineations
A lot of these discoveries were made way before this was published when he worked as a professor and was very active. Many of these notes are very similar to the information we use to teach about these minerals today Interesting side notes: Apparently, in 1728, all writings in England used the first s in a sentence to be written as an f.