388 FOSSIL FISH. 



sometimes with a small part of the scaly portion, or of the trunk. 

 The stone in which they are imbedded is calcareous, tolerably 

 hard, of a whitish yellow, and evidently fissile. Authors are 

 not agreed on the degree of its antiquity. These fishes are 

 found with Crustacea; and among others, with a species of 

 limula, and with asteriae. 



The most celebrated of the localities of ichthyolites is that of 

 Monte Bolca, or Vestena Nuova, on the confines of the Vero- 

 nese and Vicentine territories. The mountain of Vestena 

 Nuova is volcanic, and raised more than a thousand feet above 

 the limestone quarry. The part containing the fish is rather 

 hard, and backed against high calcareous mountains, with 

 coquillaceous strata ; but these are evidently more ancient. 



The mountain is composed of two kinds of stone. One is 

 but a very hardened marl, forming thick strata, and not con- 

 taining, as would appear, any organic remains. The second is 

 a fissile fetid marl, which divides in foliations. The fossils 

 do not appear to be found except in a stratum of two feet in 

 depth ; and M. de Blainville is of opinion, that they all apper- 

 tain to species at present existing in the Mediterranean, 



These ichthyolites consist of skeletons, sometimes in a per- 

 fect state of preservation, placed, w^ithout having undergone 

 any violent disturbance, generally on the side. Bones them- 

 selves are to be found there, a little friable. Sometimes there 

 is only a hollowed impression. Scales are rarely seen, but a 

 coloured trace is often observable, indicating the form of the 

 fish. Most of them appear to have been caught, or rather 

 deposited in a perfect state of integrity in the stone, while it 

 was forming ; but some are found which appear to have been 

 more or less destroyed previously to their engagement. The 

 geological affinities of this rock do not appear to be very clearly 

 known, and in all probability it owes its existence to the 

 volcano in its neighbourhood. 



Other organized bodies are very rarely found with these fish. 

 Shells are extremely scarce, and but one species of large 



