Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
October 1766
Primary Source Reference:
"Catalogue raisonné des morceaux d'Histoire Naturelle que j'ai l'honneur d'envoyer ci-joint à Monsieur du Simitierre," Du Simitière Scraps, Library Company of Philadelphia, no. 50, p. 2
Additional Source Text:
"Ces corps marins se trouvent dans un Sable trés fin, et ne sont rien quelque facon calcines, ces fossiles Sont d'un belle conservation et fort varies; mais j'en suis actuellement fort court. S'ils vous font plaisir je pourrai vous en fournir davantage dans un autre envoi."
Trans.: These marine bodies are found in a very fine sand, and are only in some way calcined, these fossils are beautifully preserved and very varied but I am being brief. If it please you I can provide your with more in another message.
Marginal note in Du Simitière's hand: "Beaucoup perdu" (Trans.: Many lost)==
Notes:
The donor was a man named Frey, of Basel, Switzerland. He may have met Du Simitière during miltary campaigns in Flanders. The men corresponded and exchanged natural history specimens in 1765 and 1766. Frey's covering letter for his shipment of fifty fossils and other natural history specimens was dated at Basel, 1 Oct 1766. Du Simitière Papers, Library Company of Philadelphia.
