Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/229

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OTHER FOSSILS.
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renowned for fossils of this kind, no contemptible deposits are found in the vicinity of Lama, in Abruzzi, near Casalbone, and not far from Ariano, in the province of Avellino, and in the territory of Benevento (Olivella di Pacca), where they are disseminated through limestone and Piromaco. The nerinæa, another kind of mollusc, which deserves our attention, usually accompanies the Rudisti, and is found in many places; several species, differing in size and form, being recognizable. Besides these three groups of fossils—to mention but a few examples of a long series, containing many species, some of which probably ought to constitute new genera—we must record, in the province of Terra di Lavoro, the spiral shells of the Lumachelle of Monte Casino and Vitulano, the Diceratiti of Monte Licinio, near Cerreto, and some shells, allied to the Natiche, of Monte Lesule, in Matese. In Monte Gargano there are also some remarkable impressions of plants, probably of the family of the conifers, two gigantic specimens of Bulle, a Pirula, and Ammonites Rothemagensis; and in this same mountain, as well as in the vicinity of Amalfi, and near Castelgrande, in the district of Melfi, different species of zoophytes are not scarce. As to our ichthyolites, of which but few species were known before the recent works of Costa (Costa, 'Paleontology of the Kingdom of Naples, 1850'), we are now acquainted with a great many in the mountains of Pietraroia, Giffuni, and Castellamare; and by the discoveries also of Professor Costa, of which as yet only a brief account has been published (Costa, 'Hints relative to the Discoveries of the Paleontology of this Kingdom made in the year 1851'), we have made out at Pietraroia, in the icthyolitic limestone, some species of reptiles. From the brief account we have given of the fossils found in the Apennine limestone, it is easy enough to infer that all, or at least the greater part of them, belong to the great Chalk formation. But from such observations as have hitherto been made, although we cannot say that they are sufficiently numerous, it is not equally easy to establish any division among them; nor can we decide with any certainty whether some of them may not belong to still more ancient formations. Yet, not knowing of any instance in which Rudisti have been found in those rocks which contain the fossil fish at Giffuni, Pietraroia, and Castellamare, we are inclined to think that they

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