EASTMAN: DESCRIPTIONS OF BOLCA FISHES. 15 



Heckel also remarks that the same collection " ist bci woiteni reicher als 

 jene des Marchese Cauossa uud liefert eiue beiualio vollstiindige Ueber- 

 sicht summtlicher oi-ganischer Reste, welche in deu tertiareu Ablage- 

 ruueren des Monte Bolca enthalten sind." 



The only other private collection which we need notice here is that 

 brought together early in the nineteenth century by Luigi Castellini, of 

 Castelgomberto, which now forms one of the principal treasures of the 

 Padua Museum. This comprised in all about five hundred fishes from 

 Monte Bolca and Monte Postale, some of which were remarkable for their 

 large size and excellent preservation, as well as for their rarity. "Sie ist 

 auf drei grossen Doppelpulten aufgestellt," writes Heckel in his naive 

 narrative of 1850, " und enthalt ausser vielen der seltenen Arten und 

 manchen Prachtstiicke, sammtliche in Doppelplatten, auch einige bisher 

 unbeschriebene Species, deren nahere Bekanntschaft mich urn so ange- 

 nehmer berllhrte, da ich bereits mehrere derselben zu Verona in der 

 schijnen Sammlung des Herrn Grafen Gazola unter Glas bemerkt hatte." 

 Some of these new forms were shortly afterwards described by Heckel, 

 and others have been investigated by more recent writers. 



We return now to the first Gazola Collection, which, as we have seen, 

 was transported to Paris in 1797, and deposited in the Museum of 

 Natural History. It is well known that Cuvier spent considerable time 

 in the investigation of this material, with the intention of preparing a 

 monograph upon it, — a task, liowever, which was ceded finally to Agassiz. 

 Some use of the collection was made by de Blainville in the preparation 

 of his article^ on fossil fishes, published in 1818, but it cannot be said 

 that our knowledge was materially increased by this author. It remained 

 for the elder Agassiz, in 1831 and 1832, to ascertain the true nature of 

 the extinct forms of fish life here represented, and by means of this and 

 other collections which he studied, to give the first accurate and best 

 general account we possess of the remarkable ichthyic fauna occurring at 

 Monte Bolca. 



Agassiz's own estimate of the value of the Gazola Collection is thus 

 expressed by him : " Le Museum d'llistoire Naturelle de Paris a cte 

 pour moi I'une des mines les plus riches que j'aie exploitce. ... La 

 collection de poissons fossiles la plus importante qui existe maintenant, 

 et en memo temps qui otfre le plus d'interSt historique, est, sans con- 

 tredit, celle du comte de Gazola, qui a fourni les originaux pour 

 VlttioUtologia Veronese. . . . Je I'ai entierement revue et complete- 



1 De Blainville, H. D., Sur les Ichthyolites. ou les Poissons Fossiles, in his 

 Nouveau Dictionnaire d'llistoire Naturelle, Vol. XXVIII. Paris, 1818. 



