town of Ofero, he tells us that it at prefent contains only 250 inhabitants; so that the apothecary there is also the advocate; and the phyfician follows the plough. We were much pleased with the doctor, who, by cultivating a barren field, was endeavouring to make amends for the mischiefs his medicines may have done; but we thought that the apothecary might have been fatisfied with one hurtful profeffion.'-But this perhaps may be intended only for wit.

The two following letters contain the obfervations made by the Author on the river Kerka, the Titius of the ancients, the ruins of Burnum, the cities of Scardona and Sibenico, the men of letters who have flourished at the laft of the le places, and particularly on the fingular custom which is ftill kept up, of electing annually a King of Sibenico, who is a common peafant, and whofe reign continues fifteen days. During the period of his mock and brief authority, the keys of the city gates are brought to him every night; he is judge of the actions of thofe who compofe his ephemeral court; he has a good houfe affigned for his lodging; walks through the city, cloathed in fcarlet, according to the fashion of the country, and attended by many officers. The Governor entertains him at dinner, as well as the bishop; and whoever meets him in the streets bows to him. No account is here given of the origin of this fingular inftitution.

In the fucceeding letter, addreffed to the Swedish Naturalift, Mr. Ferber, the Author gives the remarks he made in the territory of Trau. With respect to his mineralogical oblervations, we fhall only mention his declaration that he has many times found flint ftones in the act, as it were, of paffing from the calcareous to the filiceous ftate; and particularly has often met with them involved in volcanic matter. I have even gone fo far as to difpofe in feries the various degrees of this paffage, and have had the pleasure of fhewing it to many of our learned friends.'

The Author in this letter defcribes and gives a drawing of a foffil curiofity, or of the remarkable hill of marble in the island of Bua; which, with the earth near it, contains Numifmales, Cornua Ammonis, and other submarine productions; and from the fiffures of which, efpecially when the fun falls on the marble rock in the heat of the day, there exudes Piffasphaltum * of the most perfect quality, black and thining, like the Bitumen Judaicum, very pure, odorous, and cohefive. It comes out almoft liquid, but hardens in large drops when the fun fets. On breaking many of thefe drops on the fpot, I found that almost every one of them had an inner cavity full of very clear water.'

Bitumen fubfriabile piceum. Linn. Syft. Nat..

The

The Author finds much difficulty in accounting for this phenomenon. No trees grow on this marble mountain from whence this Piffafphaltum iffues. Who can tell,' says the Author, whence it came there, and how, when the folar rays beat on thefe rocks, the pitch tranfpires black and quite perfect? What very remote combustion of woods, or what volcano produced it? And at what prodigious diftance of time, and difference of circumftances? And how does that water enter, which conftantly accompanies it, even in times of the greatest drought? Does it come from the high hills of the continent, paffing under the channel of the fea, which divides the island of Bua from Trau? And in that cafe, how can it afcend through the very compact ftrata of marble, of which the ifland itfelf is compofed? Can it be imagined, that the heat of the fun qualified thofe maffes to attract it from the fea, which in fome places infinuates itself under them, or from fome fountain deeply buried? I confess I am not fatisfied with any of thefe obfervations

The celebrated city and diftrict of Spalatro form the fubject of the next letter, addrefied to John Strange, Efq; his Majefty's Minifter at Venice. We here meet with a fingular account of a foffil tree, feveral miles within land, ftanding in its natural pofition, furrounded with strata of marine bodies, and which is reduced to the ftate of foffil coal, with its roots intire, even to the fmalleft parts.

But the greateft particularity that diftinguishes this coal trunk, from the great quantity of other foffil wood found in the mountains, is its having been cut, little more than a foot above the roots, by a hatchet, or some other similar instrument, before the marine ftrata covered it. The repeated examination of its fituation, and of its actual ftate, leaves no room to doubt of this ancient truth.'-The Author, with his own hands, took away the earth from this tree, and fet it in open view. I leave to thole,' says he, who are more knowing than myself, to decide by how ancient a hatchet this tree has been cut, and in what times those lands have been covered by the waters of a fea now far from us, and which has left behind it such a prodigious quantity of exotic Teftacei.

The next Letter contains various obfervations, made in the neighbourhood of the river Cettina, the Tilurus of the ancients; where he was accompanied in his mineralogical, fubterraneous, and other philofophical researches, by the Honourable Dr. Hervey, the prefent bishop of Londonderry. He particularly describes an excurfion under ground in the bowels of the mountains whence the fources of that river originate, and which was undertaken with a view to the improvement of physical geography. Here a fubterraneous marble bridge was difcovered, or a work of

2

natural

natural architecture, which refembled a model of the bridge of Veja, and was formed by the means of corroding waters.'

No bishop, furely, of the ancient church,' fays the Author, ⚫ ever penetrated into catacombs more gloomy, or of more difficult accefs than those which this worthy prelate was now exploring; and the place where he waited for us feemed to be a real image of Dante's Inferno; a fituation well fuited for one difpofed to reflect on Young's Night Thoughts, and to render them ftill more difmal.'

-

Speaking of the magnificent cafcade of Velika Gubauiza, which is precipitated from a height of above 150 feet, the Author particularly mentions the vultures that haunt the mouth of it, as dreadful animals, measuring above twelve feet from the tip of one wing to the other,' and which are able to lift up in their claws, and carry away to their nefts, lambs, nay fometimes fheep, and even the children of the fhepherds.' I faw one of them,' fays the Author, and measured it myself.' The truth of this fact, he adds, is not to be called in queition: the vultures of the Swiss mountains are of the fame race, and not only carry off kids, lambs, wild goats and children, but will alfo attack grown-up men.'-The fpecies is called Vautur des Alpes. A well preferved ftuffed fpecimen of this noble bird may be seen in the curious collection of the Rev. Mr. Sprungli, near Berne in Switzerland.'

The remaining Letters, which are addreffed to the bishop of Londonderry, the Abbé Spallanzani, and John Symonds, Efq; contain a great variety of geographical, topographical, and mineralogical obfervations; many of which will be interesting to the lovers of Natural Hiftory. We shall only take notice of a few particulars contained in them.

The Author differs from Wallerius and other Northern Naturalifts with refpect to the origin of fand. That these laft might not engage themselves in researches, the consequences of which might feem to contradict the orthodox opinions concerning the age of the world; the Author supposes that they adopted the expedient of allowing a ftrange kind of pre-existence to fand, and of inferring that ftones, in general, were formed from it; which seems much the fame as to fay that flour exifted before wheat.'-In conformity to the opinion of Ariftotle and the ancients, the Author afferts pofitively that fands are formed by the collifion and trituration of mountain ftones carried down by torrents, and finally pulverifed by a constant friction in following the course of rivers. He found, in particular, large tracts of arenaceous Quartz, refembling that left on the inundation of large rivers, depofited in regular frata, and very fingularly fituated on the top of a mountain. The elevated fituation of this fand feems to furnish a strong objection to the Author's opinion.

ΟΠ

on this fubject. He does not however clear up this difficulty otherwife than by alluding, afterwards, to the great revolutions which the furface of this globe may be fuppofed to have undergone in very remote ages; and by the mention he makes of hig fearching for the veftiges of ancient rivers, now loft, and of his difcovering them on the tops of hills.

6

The Author relates many curious particulars concerning that wonderful phenomenon in Natural History ;-the immenfe quantity of foffil bones of land animals, and even of men, ftrata of which feem to be extended over the greatest part of Dalmatia, and the adjacent iflands; and which were firft difcovered, in part, by the celebrated Donati about 30 years ago. These bones are generally found inclofed in a kind of fparry stalactitic cryftallization, which is fometimes tranfparent. The fiftular bones, as those of the arms and legs, are found to be lined within with a cruft of gemmeous fpar, lucid, and exceedingly pure, like a crystallization made by a difficult filtration through a very compact body.' Though the Author did not find, as had been reported, that the quantity of these bones was fo immenfe, that the organisation of the whole ifland of Ofero, in particular, was compofed of them; nevertheless the ftrata which he met with in different places, and the concomitant circumstances, largely excited his wonder, and gave room to conjecture, at first fight, that one immenfe ftratum had been compofed in remote ages;-but who can pretend to imagine how remote? There are various fpecies of terrestrial animals, fometimes comminuted and confufed, and fometimes perfectly well difpofed and diftinguishable. The places moft known, where they are found, are along the coaft in the vertical and horizontal chafms, or in the divifions of the marble ftrata which form the bafe and the hills of the islands. The fithermen and feamen, who, in fmall barks, ufually keep near the fhore, can point out many of these spots; and the fhepherds are acquainted with those within Jand, and in the caverns. Chance might difcover new collections to obfervers, as it did to us, if the lovers of natural wonders came more frequently on that coaft.'

The Author does not venture to give any opinion about the origin of this fingular phenomenon. He ridicules the pretended folutions which may be founded on lufus nature, plaftic powers, archetypal ideas, and fuch like fcholaftic barbarifms. He has barely related, fimply, and with the moft fcrupulous precision, every thing he has feen or obferved on the fubject. He confiders thefe immenfe maffes of foffil bones as one of the moft important objects which can employ the learned curiofity of Natu ralifts; and wishes that fome of them, led by genius, would give us an account how far precifely thefe ftrata reach over all Dalmatia, and the islands of the Levant.',

It is a very remarkable circumftance that, though not the leaft veftige or fragment of marine bodies can be difcovered among these bones, either by the naked eye, or by the help of glaffes; yet both the ftrata beneath and thote above them are full of marine fubftances. Whole skeletons are feldom difcovered: on the contrary, fplinters of marble, and ftones, are found confufed, broken, and intermixed with thefe reliques of various animals. It cannot therefore be fuppofed that they can have been thus carefully buried by the hands of men, or that fuch numerous and extenfive he.ops can have been the refult of burials.• Were we to fuppofe,' fays the Author, that all thefe bones had been interred on purpofe, in fuch numerous burying-places; how many ages would have been requifite to render them fo very frequent, and how many more to raife from their level the hills and eminences, under the bafes, or in the hearts of which, the bones lie in heaps? And in what age can we imagine that thofe countries were inhabited by a nation that pre-exilted the formation of the marine hills, and iflands, which in our days are feen in the Adriatic?'-In one of the immenfe caverns near the city of Ofero, into which the Author penetrated, he found fome of thefe bones depofited at the depth of above thirty feet from the furface of the hill which covered them, and which is all compofed of marble.

In his account of the nearly conjoined iflands of Cherfo and Ofero, the Author communicates fome Roman infcriptions found there. Among thefe is one which, through accident, is become of much greater importance to the naturalift than to the antiquary. It is of Greek marble, and had long remained under the fea water; where the Pholades, or Dactyli Marini, had taken poffeffion of it, and perforated it in feveral places.

M. Reaumur confiders thefe fhell fish as making their lodg ment in earthy fubftances, while they are in a foft ftate: but this ftone fhews that they are provided with inftruments or means, by which they are enabled to perforate the hardcft marble. Hence M. Reaumur's deductions, with respect to the great age to which the Pholades must live, or the fpeedy induration of fubmarine ftrata of earth, are overturned.The Author proposes a conjecture that these fish hollow out and enlarge their habitations in calcareous marble, not by mechanical means, but by an acid liquor, or folvent, which they can emit at pleasure. At least, he has never found them lodged in vitrefcent, or other ftones on which acids have no action. He mentions too an infcription found under water, which was engraved on Vulcanic lava; on which neither the Pholades, or any other species of marine creatures had made an attack or lodgment.-But may not lava and other vitrefcent or vitrified ftones owe their fecu

See Mem, de Acad, des Sciences de Paris, Année 1712.

rity