that the sea has now the power of agglutinating these 

 shells by such a compact paste, or indurated cement, 

 as that found in marbles and calcareous sand-stones, 

 or even in the coarse lime-stone strata in which shells 

 are found enveloped. Still less do we now find the 

 sea making any depositions at all of the more solid 

 and silicious strata which have preceded the formation 

 of the strata containing shells."* 



It is believed by some, that volcanoes or subterra. 

 nean fires have been powerful agents in the produc- 

 tion of these phenomena ; and it is said of the speci- 

 men of the pike that was found at Vestena Nuova, 

 and now in the museum of natural history at Paris, 

 that its instantaneous death is supposed to have been 

 produced by a sudden volcanick irruption into the 

 water, at the moment of its having swallowed its 



prey.f 



How far this opinion is entitled to credit, we are 

 left to determine from the circumstance, that the Ves- 

 tena Nuova contains thousands, and perhaps millions 

 of fossil fishes of various kinds, in all situations, and 

 at different depth in the rocks. Now it would have 

 been, not only an unlucky, but truly a singular event, 

 if so many myriads of them should have been caught 

 by " a sudden volcanick irruption into the water" and 

 preserved perfect and entire, until deposited in their 



* Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, page 34, London edition. 

 t Parkinson's Organick Remains, vol. Hi. page 252. 

 20 



