FOSSIL FISH. 427 



fish which are found in the bosom of the earth. All the books 

 which treat of petrifactions contain a greater or less number 

 of these, figured more frequently than described : the best 

 works on this subject are those of Scilla, Knorr, and Walch. 



These fossils have been met with in all zootic strata, as it 

 would seem, from the most ancient to the most modern ; they 

 are found in the schists, the compact limestone, the chalk, the 

 shell-limestone, the gypsum, the diluvial, and the alluvial for- 

 mations : some are found which have even evidently been 

 rolled. 



The vertebrae thus found have been preserved as far as 

 regards the form; the substance, probably, has been pretty 

 frequently converted into that of the stone which contains 

 them. No author, we apprehend, has as yet attempted to 

 refer these vertebrae to known or unknown species : the task, 

 though, perhaps, not impossible, especially if Ave had a great 

 number of specimens at our disposal, would yet be no very 

 easy enterprise ; for these vertebrae are never accompanied by 

 their apophyses^ they are for the most part insulated speci- 

 mens, and there is so strong an inter-resemblance in the ver- 

 tebrae of a great number of living fish, that it is with some 

 difficulty that they can be distinguished. All that can be said, 

 at present, respecting the vertebrae in question, is that they 

 seem to have belonged to large species, and that sometimes 

 under this name have been confounded the coccygian vertebrae 

 of cetacea, which are, however, easily enough to be recognized 

 by the absence of those deep and regularly disposed holes 

 which are remarkable at the surface of the true vertebrae of 

 fish. 



The fossil teeth of fish are the parts most frequently to be 

 found in the bosom of the earth, because they are much less 

 subject to decay and alteration ; accordingly, we find them in 

 great abundance in all collections. 



In old works, very frequently, we find these fossil teeth 

 spoken of under the generic name of ichthyodontes, and they 



