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Ilian the shell, bear the name and resemblance of theoyster; syringites, which are formed with cavities, by whichthey resemble the pipes of straw; spongites, bearingthe form of sponge; phyciles, resembling sea-weeds orrushes.
“ He also speaks of a black light substance resemblingwood; that Theophrastus speaks of fossil ivory, both blackand white ; of bones bom in the earth, and of stones bear-ing the figure of bones.
Vide ego, quod fcrerat quondam solidissima tcllus,
Esse petum. Vidi factas ex aquore terras :
Et procul a pelago concha jacuere marina ;
Et vetus iweenta cst in montibus anchora summis.
Metamorph. lib. xv. 1. 269.
“ Alexander ab Alexandro 11 says lie remembers to haveseen, in the mountains of Calabria , at a considerable dis-tance from the sea, a variegated stone of hard marble, inwhich many sea-shells, but little changed, were heaped,forming one mass with the marble. He also relates thatJovianus Pontanus informed him, that being once on thepromontory of Pausilyppus, near Naples, be saw in themiddle of a piece of stone, which was broken from the rockby the violence of a tempest, a wooden beam surroundedon every side by stone, and grown into one body with therock.
“ Tertullian ' 1 also, anxiously endeavouring to prove fromnatural appearances, that a general deluge had, accordingto scripture, taken place, dwells particularly on the remainsof marine animals on mountains, and on various parts ofdry land, at a considerable distance from the sea.
“ For several succeeding ages, the writers of naturalhistory were, at least with respect to their accounts of thesesubstances, little more than mere copyists of Pliny ; who,although he had affixed names to these substances descrip-tive of the forms they possessed, meant not thereby to giveany opinion as to their origin.
“ In the thirteenth century, Albert le Grand spoke ofthe branch of a tree being found, in which was a bird’s nestwith birds contained in it, the whole being a mass of stone.The vis formativa of Aristotle was, however, sufficient toaccount in the opinion of Albert for this extraordinary phe-nomenon. But the opinions which were entertained at this
11 Genialura Dieorum, liber quintus, 1532.Ia De Pallio, cap. ii. p. 6, cd. Salmas.
1 3 Mineral Tract, i. lib. 1.