146 



different situations in the rocks, and there retained 

 until the whole mass was lapidified. 



JBut admitting that the pike in question, with all the 

 others in the Vestena IS nova ; with those found in the 

 slate of La Bolca, and in the copper slate pf Thurin- 

 gia, which is full of them ; also those in the stink- 

 stone slate of Oenigen ; and of Verona ; the black 

 slate of Glacis ; of the white slate of Acihstedt, the 

 plaster quarries about Paris, and numerous other 

 places, together with the singular specimen of the 

 bream and salmon which I have mentioned, was kill- 

 ed by a sudden volcanick irruption into the water, it 

 does not explain, by any means, the modus operandi, 

 by which they were preserved perfect, until they, 

 with the surrounding matter were changed into rocks 

 and petrified masses. I do not wish it to be under- 

 stood that in all the instances which I have enumerat- 

 ed, the fishes are petrified ; in many they only present 

 beautiful and accurate impressions. 



That thousands of fishes have been killed by sub- 

 marine volcanoes, or by a discharge of electrick fluid 

 from the depth of the ocean, there can be no doabt ;* 



* The following interesting facts are related by Mr. Salt as 

 having occurred in his passage from Mosambique, to Aden near the 

 straits of Babel mandel. * At one o'clock in the afternoon, when 

 distant about five leagues from land, we met with a shoal of dead 

 fish, many thousands of which lay floating on the surface of the 

 water, and we continued to pass through them about Jive and thirty 

 minutes, Bailing at the rate of tw<* leagues in the hour. Many of 

 these fish were of a large size, and of several species, chiefly of the 



