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distinctions of any of the crabs which I possess. Mr. Francis Crow, 
of Faversham, is of opinion, that he possesses about twelve different 
fossil crabs, from Shepey ; and in the collection of the London 
Museum, there existed, in the opinion of its learned possessor, more 
than three times as many; none of which he finds exactly agree 
with any in his extensive recent collection. 
Plate XVII. Fig. 1 and represent two different specimens of 
fossil crabs from the Isle of Shepey, distinguishable from each 
other by the markings on the dorsal plate. Crabs, apparently similar 
to those which are found at Shepey, are also obtained from the 
neighbourhood of Verona. Very fine fossil remains of this kind are 
also found in Malta, as well as in Anjou, in the department of Maine 
and Loire. 
Fossil remains of lobsters are sometimes found, in very good 
preservation, in the Isle of Shepey. 
We learn from M. Knorr, Monum . des Catast. T. i. p. 19, that 
the fossil remains of river animals of this genus, the cray-fish ( astaci), 
are found in no other part of the world, but in a narrow district, 
reaching from Gunzenhausen, in Anspach, to Aichstaedt, a length 
of about seven or eight leagues, bordered on one side by the river 
Altmuhl, which, he observes, abounds with animals of the same kind. 
The matrix of these petrifactions is a fine light yellow lime-stone, 
which frequently separates in tables, by which the contained fossils 
are beautifully displayed. These animals appear to have been im- 
bedded in their matrix during the precipitation of the calcareous 
particles from the fluid in which they had been held. A fossil shrimp, 
from these quarries, is shewn Plate XVII. Fig. 8. 
Plate XVII. Fig. 12, is the representation of a fossil crab, from the 
East Indies. These fossils are known by the name of Ceylon crabs ; 
they having been formerly brought into Europe by the Dutch, who 
used to state that they were brought from Ceylon, where only they 
were to be found. Father Martini, in his Chinese Atlas, relates, 
