I §4 The t^atural Hifiory Part \V. 



entire as any • of their fellow Shells at 

 Sea: yet when they happened to be 

 lodged amongft Sand, Gravel, or the 

 like laxer Matter, the Shells are ufual- 

 vici.part ly perifliM and gone ^, and fo the 



tnf!lu' ^P^^> ^^^^ uncover d. In 



which cafe the laid Flint, Spar, or 

 other Mineral, is of a conftant, regu- 

 lar, and fpecifick Shape, as is the Shell 

 whence it borrows both that Shape, 

 and indeed its ;^ame ; thefe being the 

 Bodies which are called, by Natura- 

 Iconf lifts, Echimt^e^ Cochlit£^ md Cochita \\^ 

 {^^^ ^ as refembling the Shells of thofe names : 

 ^' and truly many of them very nearly, 

 they having taken the Imprejfes of the 

 Infides of thele Shells with that exqui-^ 

 fite Niceneft as to exprefs even the 

 fmalleft and fineft Lineaments of them : 

 iofbmuch that no Metall, when melt- 

 ed and caft in a Mould, can ever poffi- 

 biy reprefent the Concavity of that 

 Mould with greater Exaftnefs than 

 thefe Flints, and other Minerals, do 

 the Concavities of the Shells wherein 

 they were thus moulded. 

 5« That at length all this Metallick and 

 Mineral Matter, both that which con- 

 tinued afunder, and in fingle CorpuP 

 cles, and that which was amalsM and[ 



concre- 



