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Dr. Woodward's "Natural History of the Fossils of England" appeared in 1729. This work was based on a systematic collection of fossils which he had brought together, and which he subsequently bequeathed to the University of Cambridge, where it is still preserved, with his arrangement carefully retained. This descriptive part of this work is interesting, but his conclusions are made to coincide strictly with the Scriptural account of the creation and deluge. He had previously stated, in another work, that he believed, "the whole terrestrial globe to have been taken to pieces and dissolved at the flood, and the strata to have settled down from this promiscuous mass." In support of this view, he stated that, "Marine bodies are lodged in the strata according to the order of their gravity, the heavier shell in stones, the lighter in chalk, and so of the rest." (Essays toward a Natural History of the Earth. 1695.)

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