98 The Natural Hi/lory 



hood may have hit the mark, who doubts not but they are made 

 of the fame matter with Gems, and therefore gives them place 

 between Gems and Stones, Inter Gemmat istlapides medium locum 

 obtinent fluores, fays he : to whom in this matter I readily fub- 

 fcribe, finding many of them to participate with Gems in lufter, 

 but with other Stones in foftnefs and brittlenefs ; whence it comes 

 to pafs, that they will not polifh like other ftones, and are only 

 fit to be mix'd with other metals, which they render much more 

 quick in fufwn, than otherwife they are inclined to be of theni- 

 felves. 



54. After Stones fo purely made out of Waters, that they 

 readily return into fluids again, or have only fuch figures, into 

 which that Element feems moft naturally to compofe it felf, as the 

 Stalagmites and Lapides ftillatitii\ come we next to fuch as re - 

 prefentits Inhabitants, the Fifties of the Sea and frejh Waters too : 

 of which there are fome of fo great variety of texture, that in 

 cafe they were not heretofore the fpoils of real Fifies indeed, 

 and now petrified,requirea much higher principle for their effor- 

 mation ; concerning which before we attempt any thing, let us 

 firft confider fome of their particular fhapes, with the places and 

 poftures they are now found in. 



55. Of fuch as refemble any of the frejh water kind, I have 

 met with only one in this County, which did we but know where 

 elfe to put it, fhould not be placed here neither ; for it was taken 

 out of a block of coal (whereof there is none dug in Oxford-fiire) 

 by the ingenious and obferving Sir Thomas Fennyfion, at his Houfe 

 at Cornwell ; and feems to reprefent a Carp or Barbel, the belt 

 of any Fifh I have yet compared it with, and rather indeed the 

 latter of the two, becaufe of the fhort and thick fcale : It was 

 broken, in taking it out of the Coal, into feveral pieces, whereof 

 that is one exaftly engraven Tab. 3. Fig. 11. kindly bellowed on 

 me by that worthy Gentleman, and by whom the reft are carefully 

 preferv'd ; which were it not for want of the variety of co- 

 lours, I fhould take (for the fcales fake) to be the Lepidotes of 

 Pliny c . 



56. Theflones that we find in this In-land Country, having 

 the fhapes of Sea fijh, are many, but chiefly of the teslaceout kind; 

 whereof there are fome that lie in a mafs of ftone together, and 



* Nat. Hi ft. fib. 37.C. 10. 



others 



