FOSSIL SHELL. A shell is considered to be in a fossil state when, the soft parts having ceased to exist, it is deprived of all its animal juices, has lost all, or nearly all its natural colour, and is thus changed in its chemical composition, when little or nothing is left but a mere bone, which is embedded in a sedimentary deposit. In this state, it is fragile, prehensile to the tongue, and either destitute of colour or tinged with the diluted mineral matters which pervade the stratum in which it lies. In some cases, the mineral composition of the shell is so completely changed as no longer to present its proper structure, consisting of successive oblique layers of shelly matter; but is altered into a fibrous structure, composed of rhomboidal particles. An example of this will be found in the Belemnites, which if broken, shew the perpendicular fibres. In other cases, the matter which has entered and filled up the cavities of the shell has become silicified, or changed into flint, and the shell itself has been decomposed and fallen off, so as to leave nothing but an external or internal cast of its form, in flint. This is called a Conchyliomorphite by continental writers. Some of the most important of Geological data are obtained by a minute comparison of fossil shells, found in various beds, with recent ones presenting the nearest resemblance to them. Some species of fossil shells are considered as identical with recent species. And many Geologists seek to fix the chronology of the different strata by the number of species which they inclose bearing a resemblance to the recent species. Indeed, all who would study Geology with success, will find it indispensably necessary to obtain a thorough knowledge of Conchology. FRAGELLA. Sw. A sub-genus of Monodonta, corresponding with the genus Clanculus, Montf. consisting of M. Pharaonis (fig. 361), and similar species. Sw. p. 352. FRAGILE. (_Fragilis._) Tender, easily broken. FREE SHELL. One that is not attached. FREE VALVE. In attached bivalve shells, one only is fixed; the other is then _free_, as far as to the action of opening and shutting. FRESH-WATER SHELLS, (sometimes described as aquatic) are those which either inhabit rivers, running pools and ditches, in which case they are _fluviatile_; or wells and ponds of standing water, &c. Fresh-water shells are either thin and horny in their texture, as the Limneana of Lamarck; or are covered with a compact, smooth, horny epidermis. They are generally simple in form, subject to corrosion where the epidermis is wounded or broken, and are circumscribed with regard to the classes and genera to which they belong. The family of Nayades includes nearly all the fresh-water bivalves; and the Melaniana and Limneana are the principal among univalves.