249 



poses the fine light-coloured calcareous mass in which they are imbedded 

 to have been formed by the deposition of carbonate of lime from lime-stone 

 heated by volcanic fires, and plunged in this state in the ocean. By this 

 means, he thinks the fish would be destroyed, and would remain in the 

 calcareous magma, which, as it became condensed, would retain and 

 absorb the putrid gases evolved from the fish, and would thereby become 

 a stink-stone, yielding its peculiarly offensive smell by attrition. 



The British Isles are not so productive of this class of fbsssils as are 

 several of the places on the Continent, which have been just particula- 

 rized. In Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, 

 Dorsetshire, and Kent, however, some specimens of entire, or nearly 

 entire fishes have been found. 



In Mr. Donovan's collection is a very beautiful and complete impres- 

 sion of a small fish on Portland stone. This fish much resembles a smelt 

 in size and form. In the same collection is a very fair and perfect im- 

 pression of a small fish, in bluish lime-stone, from Burfbrd, in Oxford- 

 shire; but which I have never had the opportunity of examining so 

 closely, as to be authorized in forming an opinion under what genus it 

 might be placed. 



The Hon. Daines Barrington communicated to the Royal Society, in 

 1755, the figure and description of a fossil, found at Bath, which he 

 conceived to be part of a fossil beaver's tail. A comparison, however, of 

 this fossil, with some specimens which were formerly in Mr. Strange's 

 Museum, and which were found in the neighbourhood of Weymouth, 

 determines this fossil to be part of a fish. 



This is plainly evinced in one of these specimens, in which the form 

 of the body is observable, and its upper and lower terminations are 

 nearly preserved. From the comparative thinness and width of the body 

 it may perhaps be considered as of the family Leptosomes, of Dumeril, 

 and of the genus Pleuro?)ectes. As neither the fins nor the gills are pre- 

 served, in any specimen which I have seen, no opinion can be formed 



VOL. III. K K 



