688 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1755. 



springs of Bevieux have been rendered more salt. At Amersfort, in the province 

 of Utrecht, on the 1 5th of this month, was felt a shock of an earthquake, which 

 occasioned great consternation, but no damage. 



LXX. Of some Fungitce and other Curious Coralloid Fossil Bodies. By Thomas 



Pennant,* Esq. p. 513. 



Fig. 1, pi. l6, was found in the lime-stone quarries in Coalbrooke-dale, 

 Shropshire, the greatest magazine of coralloid fossils that I am acquainted with. 

 The length of this elegant body is equal to that drawn, and its greatest diame- 

 ter, which is near the top, is about an inch and a half. It is exactly of the form 

 of a pear, with a small portion of stalk remaining ; and its whole surface is 



• Thomas Pennant, Esq. was bora in Flintshire in the year 1726. His father was a gentleman of 

 good family and independent fortune. 



Mr. Pennant has himself given us the chief particulars of his life in a small work which he plea- 

 santly chose to write in the character of his own shade : it is entitled " The Literary Life of the 

 late Thomas Pennant, Esq." In this publication he informs us that his zeal in the pursuit of Natural 

 History was first excited by a present of Willughby's Ornithology, which was made to him by a re- 

 lation, when he was about 12 years of age. In 1754 he was elected a Fellow of the Antiquarian 

 Society, and in 1767 a f.r.s.; having distinguished himself by his ingenious and useful work the 

 British Zoology, and other scientific publications. The British Zoology was at first undertaken for 

 the benefit of a Welsh school, but the splendid nature of the work in its folio form seems to have 

 operated to its disadvantage as an affair of profit, and it was never continued on a similar scale, but 

 was republished in 4to, in which state it is too well known and esteemed to require particular de- 

 scription. In 1757 Mr. Pennant was, at the instance of Linnaeus himself, made a member of the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences at Upsal, and he continued to correspond with Linnaeus till the age and 

 infirmities of that illustrious naturalist obliged him to desist. In 1765 Mr. Pennant travelled into 

 France, where he passed some time with the celebrated Count de BufFon. He went into Switzerland, 

 where he commenced an acquaintance with Haller, and at Zurich with the Gesners, one of whom 

 was the descendant of the famous Conrad Gesner. He then visited Holland, and at the Hague 

 found the celebrated Dr. Pallas, with whom he ever after maintained a constant correspondence on 

 subjects of natural history. In the midst of these his reigning pursuits he never neglected the com- 

 pany of convivial friends, or shunned the society of the gay world. Mr. Pennant lived some years 

 after the publication of his Literary Life, during which time he still pursued, with as much assiduity as 

 his increasing infirmities would permit, his usual course of study, and died at his seat at Downing in 

 Flintshire in the year 1798. It remains to add, that Mr. Pennant's person was elegaut, his manners 

 in the highest degree polished, and what is of infinitely more importance, tliat his character was 

 equally estimable. 



The publications of Mr. Pennant are numerous, and are remarkable for variety of information, 

 which is generally detailed in a very entertaining manner. His tours in Scotland, Wales, &c. are 

 held in great esteem. His Indian Zoology contains descriptions, accompanied by plates, of a {ey/ 

 of the rarer Indian animals, but was never continued to any farther extent. His " Outlines of the 

 Globe," a vast work, has as yet been only published in part : of this the " Arctic Zoology" can 

 hardly be too much commended : the parts relative to India, New-Holland, and some other regions 

 have also appeared ; and it is greatly to be wished that the whole of a work so much abounding in 

 general as well as zoological and geographical information should at length be presented to the public. 



