formation, to the reft o f the mountain perhaps many thoufands
o f ages. This breccia is fimilar to a fine fpecies o f marble in
the ifland o f Veglia called Mandolato by the artifts. It is for the
moft part compofed o f white pieces, mixed with fome o f a pale
red, united together by a ftalailitic cement of a fleth colour. In
this third cavern or fubterranean rotundo o f Gnermofall there
are foffil bones to be feen by the clear light o£ the day, as they
were in the firft by candle light; or to fpeak more properly,
there is a large mafs of that fubftance in which the foffil bones
o f thofe parts are conftantly inclofed. It is fituated oppofite tp
the entrance o f the cavern, about forty feet above the bottom o f
it, and about twenty below the fuperficies o f the hill, and the
edge of the grand aperture through which the light defcends.
O f Fojjil Bones,
Foffil bones, which are fo frequently found in Dalmatia, and
were the principal objedt o f our voyage, were firft taken notice
of, as far as I know, by the celebrated Vitaliano Donati o f Pa--
dua, in his S.iggio fopra la Jtoria naturale delt Adriatico. He
had oblerved them in feveral places on that coaft, where the
defire o f acquiring new informations and knowledge carried him
feveral times; but the want o f means, which proved a conftant
obftacle in other enterprifes,' fuitable to his great learning, and
declared genius kept him behind in the examination o f this particular
likewife, * It had been rumoured, that the quantity o f
thofe
* Though Vitaliano Donati undoubtedly merits a very honourable p la c e among
•the Italian naturalifts of this age, yet no one has hitherto wrote his elegy,: or
collected his .m em o i r s . He died a v.idtim to his genius for natural hiftorv; and
*11 the lovers of that fcience will cpnfequently fee with p leafy re, that he is ¿till
remembered,,
I
¿■'M
I