247 



several leaves of trees and of plants, many of which were, he says, indi- 

 genous to the South of France, whilst others appeared to be foreign to 

 the climate. Among these were also found the' remains of fishes, which 

 he ascertained to be idus, pinna ani radiis 13, -centre pluro. 



The following particulars respecting the fossil fish of Monte Bolca and 

 the circumstances under which they are found, as given by the Rev. 

 Mr. Graydon, Transactions >vf the Irish Academy, Vol. v. p. 281, are par 

 ticularly interesting. 



Monte Bolca lies on the border of the Veronese territory, about fifty 

 miles W. N. W. of the Lagunes oi Venice, which is supposed to be the 

 nearest sea. Its height has not been ascertained, but it is pretty consi- 

 derable. It forms one of the chain, or ladder, of secondary hills, which, 

 from some distance from the adjoining Vicentine, rise gradually above 

 one another, to the Alps of the bishopric of Trent. Great part of this 

 tract has been considered by many naturalists as being covered with pro- 

 ductions of extinct volcanoes; but the supposed .compact lava of the 

 Vicentine and Veronese is wholly of the argillaceous genus, and of the 

 traph or horn-Wend species, resembling basalt : indeed, the summit of 

 this hill itself was, many years ago, discovered, by Abate Fortis, to be 

 crowned with a great mass of tolerably defined columnar basalt. 



The whole of the hill, as far as I could observe, Mr. Graydon says, 

 seems to be composed of similar, or at least of argillaceous matter, except 

 the quarries in which the fish are found, which are calcareous, and lie 

 at about halt a mile from the summit. Besides, the dissimilarity of these 

 to the other materials of the hill, it is further important to remark, that 

 they do not form a continued stratum, but lie in great and wholly de- 

 tached and distinct masses, as it were accidentally imbedded in the side 

 of the hill, set in a loose rubble of argillaceous and the same kind of cal- 

 careous fragments, the whole, more or less, in a state of decomposition. 



What is most remarkable is, that these tish are described as the mo- 

 dern natives of various seas, most remote from each other, and not of 



