i6$ 



Mr. Lhwyd to Mr. Ray* 



Honoured SIJR^ Oxford | OStoh. f. — 92; 



WHEN your lafl: Letter came, I was at London 

 about a Legacy of Books, Medals, and PiUures^ 

 bequeathed by Mr. JJhmoTe to the Univerfity * fince 

 which Time I have been fo continually employed in 

 taking a Catalogue of them, that I have had but 

 fmall Leifure to go abroad to make any Difcoveries. 



My Difcoveries in Fornfd Stones of late are but few. 

 I have a Stone almoft a Foot long, (but broken in 

 feveral Pieces) fomething of the Colour, Shape, and 

 Politenefs of a Rhinocerofs Horn, which perhaps is 

 congenerous with that they call Unicornu Foffile : And 

 have alfo found at Witney and Charleton in Oxford- 

 /hire, and Faringdon in Berkfloire, feveral very odd §e* 

 trifled Bones, to me at prefent unaccountable, and 

 like to continue fo, at leaftwife a long time. At pre- 

 fent I only fufpeft them to be the Bones of fome ma- 

 rine Creatures : 'Tis certain they differ totally from 

 the Bones of any Land- Animals at prefent in the Ifland - y 

 and we have no reafon to imagine that this Countrey 

 was pofTefTed anciently of any other Land-Animals 

 than what it is at prefent, unlefs we fliould give way- 

 to Dr. Burnet's Hypothefis, or fome fuch other In- 

 vention. I have alfo two Foffils, which feem to be 

 Fragments of Fifh-Jaws petrified, each of them ha- 

 ving their Teeth (to wit tfoad-fiones, or the Occhiedi 

 Serpi of the Maltefe) placed in their natural Order r 

 as they are in thzfLupus, and probably in fome other 

 Fifli. I have likewife difcovered very elegant Stones 

 of thofe Kinds, which I have called Siliquaftrum and 

 Punffularia. As for the Cornua Hammonis, I am now 

 fatisfy'd they are all of the Nautilus Kind, and of 



M m fuch- 



