Notices respecting New Books. 233 



fbund, in a mineralized state, may be fairly, andj I trust, 

 unquestionablv, inferred from t'ne circumstances of the con- 

 gregation of similar aninials, and of their bearing but few- 

 marks of external violence; since, had they been thus trans- 

 ported from distant regions, individuals of similar species 

 would have been separated, and scarcely any individual, 

 except of very strong fabric, would have been found, that 

 had not suffered material injury. 



" Reverting to what has been remarked of corals, that it is 

 not very frequent that the superior external face of the coral 

 is found in our fossil specimens, it might be thence remark- 

 ed, that this was most probably the result of attrition, du- 

 ring the convevance by the waves from one spot to the other. 

 Eut when it is considered what prodigious masses are often 

 formed by one species of coral, as in the recent coral reefs 

 in the South Sea, it will naturally occur to the mind of every 

 one, that, in cabinet specimens of fossils, which are the 

 small fragments of such masses mineralized, by far the 

 greater number of specimens may be expected to be found, 

 not possessing this, the most characteristic surface of the 

 fossil. 



*' Instances of the vast quantities in which these corals 

 were accumulated, may be found in various marbles of which 

 they form the basis, and which are in masses sufficiently 

 large, to allow of being cut into slabs, of very considerable 

 size, and to show that they could not have been brought by 

 the waves to the places where they now are found. Corals, 

 in a mineralized state, yield also ample testimony of similar 

 species having congregated together in particular places. 

 The Swedish islands of Gothland and Oeland, as well as 

 many other parts of Sweden ; Worcestershire, Shropshire, 

 Perthshire, Fifcshire, and many other parts of Great Britain, 

 possess considerable numbers of the simple turbinated ma- 

 drepore*. In Wales arc to be found considerable masses of 

 the remains of the curious madrepore, distinguished by 

 Lhwydd as Lilhostrotion, sive Basalles mijiimus striatus et 



* I lately receiveJ, from some unknown friend, two of these fossils, which 

 were found about thirty feet deep, in a mass of calcareous rock, at Lord 

 Elgin's lime-works on the banks of tic Firth of Forth, tn Fiffth-rp. 



stellatus. 



