Mr. R ay to Dr. Robinfbn. 167 



only to refemble, that it feems to me great Weak- 

 nefs in any Man to deny it. Such are the Glojfopetr* 

 dug up in Malta in fuch Quantities, that you may 

 buy them by Meafure, and not by Tale > and alfo the 



Vertebres of 'Thornbacks^ or other Cartilagineous Fijhes 

 there found, and fold for Stones among the Glojfo- 

 fetne, which have no greater Diffimilitude to the 

 Teeth of a living Sharks or the Vertebres of a quick 

 Thornback) than lying fo long in the Earth, as they 

 muft needs have done, will neceflarily induce. Now 

 in this fame JJle of Malta we found alfo many Shell- 

 like Stones, which why we fhould not efteem to have 

 been originally the Shells of Fifhes I fee no Reafon : 

 For if in one and the fame Place we find many Teeth 

 and Bones of Fifhes entire and unpetrified, and like- 

 wife Stones exa&ly imitating the Shells of other Fi- 

 fhes, a great Prefumption to me it is that thefe were 

 originally the Things, whofe Shape only they now 

 feem to bear. Neither are thefe •GloJ/opetr^e found 

 only in Malta^ but alfo in many Places of Germany^ 

 far remote from the Sea, in a Hill near Aken^ in fo 

 great Plenty, that Goropius makes it an Argument 

 they could not be the Teeth of Sharks. In colle illo 

 (faith he) qui Aquis-grano imminet^ tantum id genus fu- 

 ijje pifcium quis crederet^ quantum de Glojfopetrarum co- 

 pid conjetiari deberet ? 



3. It feems ftrange to me, that if thefe Bodies were 

 formed after the Manner of | the fhooting or cryftai- 

 lizing of Salts, it fhould happen that two Shells 

 Ihould be fo adapted together at the Heel, and fhoot 



\ out to the fame Exteiifion round, and the upper and 

 nether Valve be of different Figure, as in natural 

 Shells, and that not only in one or two rarely to be 



[ found, but in Multitudes of them. 



4. Why fhould not Nature as well imitate other 

 natural Bodies, or their Parts, as the Horns and Hoofs 

 of Land Animals, or the Nuts and Seeds of Plants, 



i as the Shells and Bones only of fome Sea-fifties. 



j\ Were 



