PRELUDE TO DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 541 



Marinis Lapidescentibus, illustrated by good en- 

 gravings of fossil-shells, teeth, and corals (Y). After 

 another interval of speculative controversy, we come 

 to Antonio Vallisneri, whose letters, De Corpi 

 Marini die su Monti si trovano, appeared at Venice 

 in 1721. In these letters he describes the fossils 

 of Monte Bolca, and attempts to trace the extent of 

 the marine deposits of Italy 4 , and to distinguish the 

 most important of the fossils. Similar descriptions 

 and figures were published with reference to our 

 own country at a later period. In 1766, Brander's 

 Fossilia Hantoniensia, or Hampshire Fossils, ap- 

 peared ; containing excellent figures of fossil shells 

 from a part of the south coast of England ; and 

 similar works came forth in other parts of Europe. 

 However exact might be the descriptions and 

 figures thus produced, they could not give such com- 

 plete information as the objects themselves, collected 

 and permanently preserved in museums. Vallisneri 

 says 5 , that having begun to collect fossils for the 

 purpose of forming a grotto, he selected the best, 

 and preserved them " as a noble diversion for the 

 more curious." The museum of Calceolarius at 

 Verona contained a celebrated collection of such 

 remains. A copious description of it appeared in 

 1622. Such collections had been made from an 

 earlier period, and catalogues of them published. 

 Thus Gessner's work, De Rerum Fossilium, Lapi- 

 dum et Gemmarum Figuris, (1565,) contains a 

 4 p. 20. 5 p. 1. 



