288 Mr Connell's Analysis of the 



tube, a yellow oil was sublimed, with a strong bituminous odour, 

 and the oil concreted on cooling, — appearances which are also 

 presented when the bituminous matter from the coprolites is 

 treated in the same manner. The quantity of bitumen obtained 

 from the limestone, after subtracting the earthy matter, was 

 about 2>\ per cent. ; but the proportion may vary in different 

 specimens. The bitumen might also be obtained by distillation ; 

 for when the powdered limestone is heated to redness in a glass 

 tube, a brown oily liquid is volatilized, which concretes on 

 cooling. 



It may also be worth while to notice, that the matter com- 

 posing the carbonaceous layers, covering many of the fine vege- 

 table impressions of the limestone, possesses, in its relations to 

 heat, all the properties of common black coal ; and appears, in 

 many instances, to be all that remains of those vegetables which 

 have left their impressions on the matrix. Thus these miniature 

 beds of coal afford an excellent illustration of the origin of their 

 more gigantic likenesses in the coal-measures. 



The next fossils from the limestone which I submitted to 

 analysis, were a portion of a bony fin ray, sent to me for that 

 purpose by Dr Hibbert ; and also some scales obtained from the 

 collection of the Royal Society. 



Both these substances, as may well be supposed from their 

 great antiquity, afford only slight traces of perishable animal 

 matter. At a red heat, they give off a little water and ammonia- 

 cal vapour ; and a slightly empyreumatic odour is also evolved, 

 arising from a small quantity of bituminous matter contained in 

 them. The alkaline reaction, however, particularly that of the 

 bones, is not so decided as that of the coprolites or limestone 

 matrix itself. 



The details of the method of analysis need not be entered 

 into, as the general nature of the process employed was the same 

 as that used in the analysis of the coprolites. 



