232 Dr. — on the Geology of pee 
Ae Mitten: “of 
shells which I had collected from this and other localities,) 
has pointed out to me small cylindrical stems, which he con- 
ceives to be the trunks of the /sis Gorgonia. This discovery 
: eiacentG as Scilla, in his work “De Corporibus marinis 
descent! rug, states his having met with this fossil among 
oe hills in the neighbourhood of Messina, in a mineralized 
state, mixed with echini, shells, &c. He found the coral in 
beautiful branches, as well as fragments, the whole surface 
deprived of its colour, although in the thicker fragments, a 
parplish hue might still be found internally. 
It seems that he at first took this fossil for the leg-bones of 
some animal, but afterwards discovered it to consist of the 
yments of some jointed coral, bearing a strong resem- 
blance to the knotted coral described by Imperatus, as found 
in the sea near the island of Majo 
The limestone of Melazzo énthins imbedded fragments of 
gneiss ; and, at the line of junction with that rock, there is an 
| criniteettmmes ae a 
a 
* Seé Parkinson’s Organic Renfains, Vol. Il. p. 72. 
