FOSSIL SHELLS. 195 
blue marl. Similar remains are visible on Lebanon; 
and at the foot of the Ligurian Mountains, a con- 
siderable tract contains shells of various descriptions, 
both bivalve and multivalve, with a profusion of 
madrepores bedded in pieces of quartz. Among the 
lofty range of mountains which divide the land, and 
Orange river, north-west of the Cape, in Africa, 
numerous petrifactions of shells are discovered; many 
of them in situations at least one hundred and fifty 
feet above the level of the ocean. 
Enormous beds of shells were also found in Tou- 
raine, situated thirty-six leagues distant from the sea. 
Oceanic shells have been recently brought from the 
fissure of a lead mine at Pontpian, near Rennes: 
they were found with the remains of a beech tree ; 
the centre of which had been converted into coal, 
the bark into pyrites, and the sap-wood into jet. The 
lake Garda furnishes similar organic remains. The 
borders of Mount Baldo exhibit large pieces of grey 
marble, beautifully diversified with sea-shells ; innu- 
merable cockles are found imbedded in the stones 
which form the walls of Megara; oysters incrust 
the fossil remains of enormous marine animals found 
near Valdarno Superiore, and Placentia; while the 
ruins of Agrigentum rise upon the partial ruins of 
the ancient world, an eminence formed of a concre- 
tion of sea-shells, hard as marble. The well waters 
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