OF THE ORGANIC FOSSILS. 411 



If it was once thought that the Elephant, and other 

 remains of Italy were derived from animals introduced 

 by the Romans, that hypothesis has passed away. In- 

 sects could not be common ; but they are likely to 

 prove more numerous when the lacustral deposits to 

 which they belong are better known. They have been 

 found at Nicholschitz in Moravia, at Radebeg in 

 Croatia, at Sinigaglia on the Apennine, and elsewhere; 

 consisting of coleoptera, hyrnenoptera and diptera, and 

 including Libellula, Cimex, grashoppers, and others. 



Vegetable fossils are very rare in the marine strata, 

 as marine vegetables; transported terrene ones are 

 far more common, and must not be confounded because 

 of their situation. Yet confervse and fuci have been 

 found in the limestone of the Alps and Apennines, of 

 Transylvania, and of Christiania in Norway. Com- 

 pared to these, the terrestrial fossil plants abound in 

 variety and numbers : occurring where they might be 

 expected, in the coal strata chiefly, and also in the 

 tertiary lacustral deposits. The former are palustral, 

 if not aquatic, and are preserved in their places. They 

 must be distinguished from the more properly terrene 

 ones which have undergone transportation, and which 

 occur in the alluvial deposits often confounded with 

 the tertiary. And I must lastly here include the 

 superficial fragments of vegetables petrified, such as 

 occur in Antigua and at Madras, in Africa as described 

 by many travellers, and in New Holland, as mentioned 

 by Collins. 



Of the Conditions in which organic Fossils occur. 



Shells are often found in sand, dry and fragile, as 

 if calcined; having lost their animal matter. In other 

 cases, that animal bond is preserved, as are even their 

 colours, well known in the Lumachella marble; while 

 similar variations occur in the case of bones and teeth, 



