964 On some rare Fossils of Vestena Nova. 



obtained the most numerous collection of this kind which' 

 an individual could procure; at present it forms one of the ' 

 principal ornaments of one of the galleries of the Museum 

 of Natural History ; M. de Gazola still proposes to enlarge 

 it, b'v generously adding to it the fruit of his new researches. 

 Being de-irons on the other hand to render his discoveries 

 more generally useful, he has caused to be engraved the 

 different and numerous species of these* ichthyolites, in a 

 work, the publication of which he has entrusted to the ca- 

 non Volta, of Mantua, a learned naturalist, muc*h versed in 

 the knowledge of fish*. There are found in the stones 

 which contain the fossil fish of Vestena, plants of the fa- 

 mily of the ferns, the mimosa, and other terrestrial plants,, 

 which prove, that at the period when these fish were living, 

 in the bosom of the sea, the waters did not cover the whole 

 surface of the globe; and that there were parts of the earth, 

 and perhaps even whole continents, more or less elevated, 

 where vegetation was able to deveiope a part of its riches. 



Does not this truth, proved not only at Vestena Nova, but 

 at /Ettingen, Pappenheim, Rochesauve, and by the argilla- 

 ceous schists which cover the coal mines, clearly show, that, 

 since plants and quadrupeds then existed, as is attested by 

 several instances, there must at the same time have been 

 birds? I know that the facility with which birds can fly, 

 may often rescue them from the danger of perishing in the. 

 water, and that those which are aquatic are still in less dread 

 of that element; Omitholites, therefore, have hitherto been 

 very rare, some naturalists even have denied their exist- 

 ence. 



That in the cabinet of Darcet, a figure of which has been 

 given in the Journal de Physique, along with a memoir of 

 Lamanon, has not been admitted either by Camper or For- 

 tis: I have examined it several times, but still entertain 

 great doubts on the subject. The same Journal for the 

 month of Thermidor, year 8, contains an engraving of an 

 ornitholite, or rather the impression of a bird found in the 

 plaster-quarries of Montmartre : this fragment belongs to 

 M. Alluin of Abbeville. As no person, however, at Paris 

 ever saw the original, and as M. Alluin has given no de- 

 scription along with this figure, it will be prudent to wait 

 for further details ; if the drawing, however, be correct, 

 one cannot help observing the two legs of a bird. 



f Ittiologia del Musco-Bozziano, ora nanesso a qucllo del rente Gic- 

 van jBattisra Gazola tdi altri gabinetti di fos>ili Vcroncj.i, con la vcisicne 

 Latina. Verona daila stamperia Guilari, 1796, in fol. rLagno, with mag- 

 nificent plates. 



When 



