CAEL VON" LINNE AS A GEOLOGIST NATHOEST. 741 



in the impressions described by Linne," while, on the contrary, Torn- 

 quist continues to regard them as such. In the present status of the 

 question a definite decision is impracticable unless the specimen de- 

 scribed by Linne can be recovered. However, Linne's surmise that 

 these animals possessed antenna? has, at any rate, been confirmed, and 

 it was he who first assigned to the trilobites their true position in the 

 zoological system of that da}'. 



During his journey in Skane Linne also observed graptolites, and 

 in the description of his travels gives an illustration of them. * * * 

 They are introduced into the S3^stema Naturae (1768) as Graptolithus 

 scalar is ^ and have since served as a type of the genus. According to 

 S. A. Tullberg,^ the vertical form shown in the figure is what is now 

 termed the " Climacograptus scalaris,'''' while the one spirally coiled 

 is probably the Monograptus triangularis. 



* * * Although Aristotle, Pliny, and Tacitus had, on the whole, 

 a true conception of the formation of amber, diverging opinions were 

 later expressed by Agricola (154G) and others, who believed that it 

 had been formed in the sea. During the journey in Skane Linne 

 noticed amber in several places, but especially at Falsterbo. * * * 

 In the Museum Tessinianum the following is said of amber : 



In it are often found several insects, the presence of which shows that the 

 amber has been floating and has always been above the surface of the earth 

 (i. e., not formed in the sea). Beetles with shells on their wings are rarely 

 found in it. 



In the Systema Naturae it is said that the insects were incased at 

 a time when the amber was resin or giun, and that they are not true 

 fossils. 



As a conclusion to this chapter I may appropriately quote Linne's 

 own words on the subjects which have here been dAvelt upon : 



Of what use are the great numbers of petrifactions, of different species, shape, 

 and form which are dug up by the naturalists? Perhaps the collection of such 

 specimens is sheer vanity and inquisitiveness. I do not presume to say ; but 

 we find in our mountains the rarest animals, shells, mussels, and corals em- 

 balmed in stone, as it were, living specimens of which are now being sought in 

 vain throughout Europe, These stones alone whisper in the midst of general 

 silence. * * * 



******* 



The infinite number of fossils of strange and unknown animals buried in the 

 i-ock strata beneath the highest mountains, animals that no man of our age has 

 beheld, are the only evidence of the inhabitants of our ancient earth at a period 

 too remote for any historian to trace. 



" S. L. Tornquist, " On the appendages of trilobites," Geological Magazine, 

 1896, p. 142, and Linn6 " On the appendage of trilobites," ibid., p. 568. C. E. 

 Beecher, *' On a supposed discovery of the antennae of trilobites by Linne in 

 1759," American Geologist, Vol. 17 (1896), p. 303. 



^ S. A. Tullberg, " On the graptolites described by Hisinger and the older 

 Swedish authors," Bihang till K. Sv. Vet. Akad, Handh, Vol. 6, No. 13. Stock- 

 holm, 1882. 



