deferts o f the lea o f Zara. Though I did not ftay long there, yet
I had an opportunity o f obferving fome foffil curiofities. I collected
large pieces o f a hard kind o f ilone, full o f an unknown
fpecies o f foffil, belonging to the clafs of the Ortocerati, concerning
which, I ffiall have occafion to fpeak more at large
hereafter. But the molt curious foffil production o f Zapuntel-
lo, is, a calcareous Hone, very white, and almoft as hard as
marble, although, when broken, it appears farinaceous, Im-
preffions o f ilones, wood, and o f marine infects, are feen in it.
It ihould feem, that during the concretion o f this ftone, from a
kind o f muddy fubftance, various kinds o f Madrepores, and o-
ther Corallines, remained buried in it j though the acid, which
diffolved them, left their places empty, and tinged only with a
kind o f rulty ochre; yet yeftiges enough remain, to afcertain
the bodies that pre-exifted in the refpective hollows. The lea
land in the creek, is full o f microfcopic Ihells, o f the nautili,
and cornua ammonis kind, the figures o f which, may be feen in
the work intitled D e conchis minus notis, of the celebrated Janus
Plancus, -f- who had the merit o f firft difcovering them, in the
fands on our coaft. It w o u ld have given me pleafure to have added
an appendix to the acute obfervations o f Plancus, by examining
thefe little animals juft taken out o f the fea, in the aquatic k micro-
icope, as fomething more probably might have been difcovered
about the particular ftrucffure o f this kind o f concha ■polithalamia,
' called coma ammonis; for it is no longer to be doubted, that the
only difference, between the maritime ones obferved by the natu-
ralifts of Rimini, and thofe foffils o f the neighbouring mountains,
confifts almoft intirely in the variety of the fize and proportion.
O f
t Jani Planci ariminenlis, &c, de conchis minus notis. Plate E