[309] 



from the examination of the fifh-quarries of Boica, may ftilt 

 hold whatever degree of probability they may be thought en- 

 titled to ; thefe confequenres, being deduced from local and 

 partial ci re um {lances, and fach as are, perhaps, peculiar to that 

 fpot, and refting principally on internal evidence, require to be 

 judged fpecially, and on their own merits, without being fub- 

 jeded to any determination that may be formed, as to the reality 

 of other effefts, imputed to the fame general caufe. 



I HAVE .now given the Academy the principal obfervations 

 which arofe in my mind from the infpedlion of thefe curious 

 quarries, and fliall only add, that, as far as they have any 

 weight, they go to infer the remote exiftence of two diftindl 

 seras of great volcanic explofion in this place, one of which at 

 leaft feems decidedly to have been fubmarine ; the firfl, when 

 the fifh were caught and inclofed in calcined calcareous matter ; 

 and the ftcond, after the complete concretion of this matter into 

 ftone, when its horizontal flratum was torn up and difperfed. 



Before I conclude this paper I cannot omit taking fome 

 further notice of a circumftance already mentioned, which feems 

 to hold out a fubjedt of invefligatlon the moft ftriking, and 

 to many the moft interefting, that occurs, perhaps, in the whole 

 range of natural hiftory : I mean the great variety of fifli col- 

 lecfled in one fpot, which, from the catalogues, appear to corref- 

 pond with fpecies now only to be found in feas and climates 

 ' the moft remote from the Italian ihores. It would be fuper- 

 fluous to dwell on the analogy which this remarkable circum- 

 ftance,; 



