to exift) ; yet of fo tender Shells, long expofed to 
the Weather, and hill remaining uncorrupred, the 
Inftance mentioned above is the mod lingular I know, 
be the Caufe of their Duration what it may. 
The other Obfervation, which I would offer to your 
Confideration, relates, in part, to the fame Subject, 
but of a different Nature. I was led into it by the 
following Circumftance : 
In September laft, having bought fome Soal-fifh, 
before they were skinn'd, I obferved their Bellies 
■were prominent and hard, as if they were full of 
large Rows ; but, inftead of that, their Guts were 
filled with Shell-fifh, a Species of TPe Auricula. 
Before thefe Shells were taken out of the tranfpa- 
renb Guts of the Fifh, the Whole had very much the 
Appearance of Strings of Beads, or Necklaces; the 
Interftices betwixt the Shells occafioning this Refem- 
blance. Upon taking the Shells out, I obferved, 
that fome of them were almoft intirely diffolved, 
others partly fo, but many were whole and intire. 
It is well known in Natural Hiftory, that Shell- 
fifh are the Food of feveral Species of Fifh. The 
Sea-Porcupine, and a kind of Ray, are known to 
fubfift chiefly upon them; but then they are wonder- 
fully provided with a fuitable Apparatus for reducing 
them into a State more fit for Digeftion : Their upper 
and under Jaws are hard enough to break or grind 
almoft the ftrongeft Shells to the Condition of 
Pulp. 
But the Soal-fifh has nothing of this kind : She 
feeds, we fee, on Shell-fifh, but digefts them not by 
Attrition ; for neither her Mouth, nor any of her 
3 Vifcera) 
