378 Miscellanies. 



still inhabitants of the Mediterranean. The conchologist remarks 

 that indivickjals deposited in the interior of the earth, surpass, in 

 medium and size, their living types. It cannot however be doubted, 

 notwithstanding such a difference in dimensions, that the species are, 

 identical, since the living individuals, sometimes, though rarely, at- 

 tain to the size of the fossil ; and the preservation of the latter is so 

 perfect that they still retain their color, which furnishes another means 

 of comparison. 



In leaving the sea and advancing into regions less disturbed by 

 modern volcanos, there are found in the Sub-Appenine hills some 

 species still living in the Mediterranean, mingled with multitudes of 

 other kinds now extinct, and which present indubitable indications 

 of a warmer climate. Several kinds are common to the Sub-Ap- 

 penine hills, the Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean. The fossils 

 correspond in size with their fellows whhin the tropics, while the in- 

 dividuals of the same species now in the Mediterranean, are small, 

 degenerated and stunted by the absence of those conditions which 

 they still enjoy in the Indian seas. 



No observations of a contrary nature have occurred to neutralize 

 our conclusions, neither are there found associated in these groups, 

 individuals appertaining to species confined within the arctic regions. 

 On the contrary when we can identify these fossil shells with living 

 species foreign to the Mediterranean, it is not in the icy sea, but 

 between the tropics that we must look for them. 

 ■ Mr. Lyell has carefully examined several hundred species of shells 

 obtained in Sicily at the height of one thousand feet, among which 

 is a great number of kinds still living in the Mediterranean ; the dif- 

 ference of size being very striking in the greater number of these 

 two classes. 



Some interesting observations, formerly made by Peron and Le- 

 suem-, stated in the Annales du Museum, T. XV, p. 287, and which 

 Mr. Lyell has not cited, confirm his opinion that the greater size of 

 individual shells of the same species, is an indication of a change of 

 climate. These naturalists have remarked that every species of ma- 

 rine animals has received a distinct location, confined to certain parts 

 of the ocean, and that in those positions they are found to be larger, 

 and more beautiful. In proportion as they are removed from this 

 locality, they degenerate, and are at length extinct. 



The Haliotes gigantea for example, which in Van Dieman's land, 

 attains the length of fifteen to twenty centimetres, suffers in its di- 



