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178 Apennine limestone are met with. It acquires a granular crystalline texture, not unlike statuary marble, and contains passing through it some thin veins of quartz, with chlorite, many crystals of pyrites, and sometimes cinnabar, and the traces of fossils are very nearly obliterated. There are yet more evident proofs of metamorphosis in the rocks of the succeeding series, which are changed into Quartzite, Stannite, Talc, and schistose argil, all of which are found in the limestone of the region. The Apennine limestone has generally been reported poor in organic remains, which might furnish paleontologists with determined characteristics. Our researches lead us to a contrary opinion; but as we cannot, without deviating from the design of our work, enter into an examination of the different species of fossils which we have found, it must suffice to say, that the number of species, and the quantity of each kind, are such as to give us a correct idea of the abundant fauna of the sea, in whose depths our highest mountains were formed. Any who wish for a convincing proof of this assertion may find it in the rich collections which, within the last few years, have been deposited in the Mineralogical Museum of the Royal University of Naples. The most frequent and abundant organic forms which we have found belong to the Rudisti, and of these we may say, that there is no place in which we cannot discern their trace; and in some spots, whether owing to the nature of the rock in which the fossils are preserved, or from the habits of those animals to live in myriads in a small space, the quantity is so enormous, that the entire rock appears to be composed of them. Monte Gargano, Monte Lesule, in Matese, the brown limestone of Il Ponto Consolazione, near Lauria, in Basilicata, present striking examples. Although they are usually so completely petrified, and identified with the rock itself, so as to render the determination of the species difficult, yet by attentive examination we can distinguish a difference between those found in places not very distant from each other. The large species of Nummulites next claim our attention; and while, like the Rudisti, or even more strikingly, they are found united together in myriads in one place, they are not, like them, distributed over a large district. In many extensive districts they are in vain sought for. Besides, in Monte Gargano, and the neighbouring islands of Tremiti,