Saarbrück, in Lorraine. Carb. Amblypterus, and other Carboniferous fishes.
Seefeld, in the Tyrol; on the principal road from Insbruck to Munich. Lias. Abundance of fish in bituminous slate.
Stabia, Italy, at Torre d’Orlando, near Castellamare. Oolite. Beautiful fishes in fissile limestone.
Solenhofen. Oolite. Numerous Ichthyolites; many in great perfection. See Wond. p. 513.
[573] It is necessary to caution the collector against the frauds practised by the quarry-men, and dealers in fossils, at this and other celebrated foreign localities. Specimens, apparently perfect, are ingeniously constructed from the fragments of various examples. The head of one fish, the body of another, decorated with the fins of a third, and perhaps the tail of a fourth, of different species, or even genera, are dove-tailed together, coloured, and varnished, so as to deceive the common observer, and, occasionally, even the experienced collector. Sponging the specimens with cold water will often detect the imposition; for the colour if artificial will be removed, or rendered paler, while the same process will heighten the natural tints. At Pappenheim, Solenhofen, and other places, where fossil crustaceans, as Shrimps, Prawns, &c. are found in such perfection, the imprints of good specimens are often coloured, and offered for sale; a wet sponge will speedily detect the imposture.
[CHAPTER XVI.]
FOSSIL REPTILES; COMPRISING THE ENALIOSAURIANS AND CROCODILES.