Ceraunia and Ombria, supposed to be thunderbolts Ostracites, 

 which, though harder than shell, bears the name and resemblance of 

 the oyster Syringites, which is formed with cavities, by which it 

 resembles the pipes of straw Spongites, bearing the form of sponge 

 Phycites, resembling sea-weed or rushes. 



He also speaks of a black light substance, resembling wood ; 

 of stones, resembling the teeth of the hippopotamus ; and observes, 

 that Theophrastus speaks of fossil ivory, both black and white ; of 

 bones born in the earth ; and of stones bearing the figure of bones. 

 Ovid tells us, 



Vidi ego, quod fuerat quondam solidissima teMus, 

 Esse fretuin. Vidi factas ex aequore terras : 

 Et procul a pelago conchae jacuere marinae ; 

 Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis. 



Metamorph. lib. xv. /. 262. 



Alexander ab Alexandra says, he remembers to have seen in the 

 mountains of Calabria, at a considerable distance from the sea, a 

 variegated stone of a hard marble, in which many sea-shells, but lit- 

 tle changed, were heaped, forming but one mass with the marble. 

 He also relates, that Jovianus Pontanus informed him, that being 

 once on the promontory of Pacusilypus, near Naples, he saw in the 

 middle of a piece of a stone, which was broken from the rock by 

 the violence of the tempest, a wooden beam, surrounded on every 

 side by stone, and grown into one body with the rock*. 



Tertullian also, anxiously endeavouring to prove, from natural 

 appearances, that a general deluge had, according to scripture, 

 taken place ; dwells, particularly, on the discovery of the remains of 

 marine animals on mountains, and on various parts of dry land, at a 

 considerable distance from the seaf. 



For several succeeding ages, the writers of natural history were, at 



* Genialum Dierum, liber quintus, 1532. f De Pallio, cap. ii. pag. 6. ed. Salmas. 

 VOL I. I> 



