Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/159

 Rh the bodies of several species of fossil fish, from the lias at Lyme Regis. Dr. Hibbert has shown that the strata of freshwater limestone, in the lower region of the coal formation, at Burdie House, near Edinburgh, are abundantly interspersed with Coprolites, derived from fishes of that early era; and Sir Philip Egerton has found similar fœcal remains, mixed with scales -of the Megalichthys, and fresh water shells, in the coal formation of Newcastle-under-Lyne. In 1832, Mr. W. C. Trevelyan recognised Coprolites in the centre of nodules of clay ironstone, that abound in a low cliff composed of shale, belonging to the coal formation at Newhaven, near Leith. I visited the spot, with this gentleman and Lord Greenock, in September, 1834, and found these nodules strewed so thickly upon the shore that a few minutes sufficed to collect more specimens than I could carry; many of these contained a fossil fish, or fragment of a plant, but the greater number had for their nucleus, a Coprolite, exhibiting an internal spiral structure; they were probably derived from voracious fishes, whose bones are found in the same stratum. These nodules take a beautiful polish, and have been applied by the lapidaries of Edinburgh to make tables, letter presses, and ladies ornaments, under the name of Beetle stones, from their supposed insect origin. Lord Greenock has discovered, between the laminæ of a block of coal, from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, a mass of petrified intestines distended with Coprolite, and surrounded with the scales of a fish, which Professor Agassiz refers to the Megalichthys.

This distinguished naturalist has recently ascertained that

that the form of the Coprolites within the Macropoma most nearly resemble those engraved, Pl. 15, Figs. 8, 9, of the present work: he also conjectures that the more tortuous kinds, (Pl. 15, Figs. 5, 7,) long known by the name of Juli, and supposed to be fossil fir cones, may have been derived from fishes of the Shark family, (Ptychodus) whose large palatal teeth (Pl. 27. f) abound in the same localities of the chalk formation with them, at Steyning and Hamsey.