253 
dons of India. M. Lacepede, in the preliminary discourse to the second 
volume of his Natural History of Fishes, informs us, that more than 
thirty Asiatic, African, and American species of fishes, have been 
here discovered. M. Fortis also observes, in a letter to M. Faujas, 
that the approximation which he has been able to make of these 
fishes to the figures of those of Otaheite, published by Broussonnet, 
has convinced him, that it is absolutely in that distant sea that the 
actually living descendants of the ancient generation, now found 
mummified in the quarry of Yestena Nuova, are to be sought for : 
as it is in these same parts that we find the originals of almost all 
the petrified shells of the mountains of Verona and of Vicentino*. 
Y 
LETTER XVII. 
PARTS OF FISHES HEAD, EYES, JAWS, TEETH, PALATES, PRO- 
BOSCIDES, SCALES, BONES, &C. 
It is sometimes difficult, when separated from the parts with which 
they were originally united, to refer the fossil remains of fishes to the 
real situation which they held in the living animal, or to ascertain 
the offices which they performed. In many of these instances we 
may, however, derive considerable assistance from the examination 
of the analogous parts in living animals. 
The heads of fishes are very frequently found among the Shepey 
fossils, and have sometimes been supposed to bear a strong resem- 
blance to known species, as the pike, gurnard, &c. In some of these 
an appearance is observable, although rarely, which gives the idea of 
* Essai de Geologie, p. 112. 
