On mount Sinai, we find only a few fossil shells, and other marks of the deluge, at least if we do not rank the fossil Tarmarin of the neighbouring mountains of Siam among this number, perhaps the first matter of which their marble is formed, had a corrosive virtue not proper to preserve them. But at Corondel, where the rocks approach nearer our free-stone, I found many shells, as also a very singular sea muscle, of the descoid kind, but closer and rounder. The ruins of the little village Ain le Mousa, and many canals which conduct the water thereto, furnish numbers of fossil shells. The ancient walls of Suez, and what yet remains of its harbour, have been constructed of the same materials, which seem to have been taken from the same quarry. Between, as well as on all the mountains, eminences and hills of Lybia, near Egypt, we meet with a great quantity of sea weed, as well as vivalvous shells, and of these which terminate in a point, most of which are exactly conformable to the kinds at present caught in the Red Sea. The moving sand in the neighbourhood of Ras Sem, in the kingdom of Barca, covers many palm trees with petrifications. Ras Sem signifies the head of a fish, and is what we term the petrified village, where it is said men, women, and children are found, who with their cattle, furniture, &c. have been converted into stone; but these, says Shaw, are vain tales and fables, as I have not only learnt from M. le Maire, who at the time he was Consul at Tripoly, sent several persons thither to take cognizance of it, but also from very respectable persons who had been at those places. Near the pyramids certain pieces of stone worked by the sculptor, were found by Mr. Shaw, and among these stones many rude ones of the figure and size of lentils; some even resemble barley half-peeled; these, he says, were reported to be the remains of what the workmen ate, but which does not appear probable, &c. These lentils and barley are nothing but petrified shells called by naturalists lentil stones. According to Misson, several sorts of these shell-fish are found in the environs of Maestricht, especially towards the village of Zicken, or Tichen, and at the little mountain called Huns. In the environs of Sienna, near Ceraldo, are many mountains of sand crammed with divers sorts of shells. Montemario, a mile from Rome, is entirely filled with them; I have seen them in the Alps, France, and elsewhere. Olearius, Steno, Cambden, Speed, and a number of other authors, as well ancient as modern, relate the same phenomena. "The island of Cerigo, says Thevenot, was anciently called Porphyris, from the quantity of Porphyry which was taken out of it[240:A]. "Opposite the village of Inchene, and on the eastern shore of the Nile, I found petrified plants, which grow naturally in a space about two leagues long, by a very moderate breadth; this is one of the most singular productions of nature. These plants resemble the white coral found in the Red Sea[240:B]."