S6 Geological Arrangement of British Fossil Shells, 



When the Indians navigate their little boats, thet/ go in dread 

 of them ; and lest these animals should fling their arms over, 

 and sink them, they never sail without an axe to cut them off." 

 The same story is to be found in Pliny, but he of course was 

 not Mr. Pennant's friend ; and the following — fact, shall I 

 call it ? — adds to its credibility : — The celebrated diver, 

 Pescecola, whom the Emperor Frederic II. employed to de- 

 scend into the Strait of Messina, saw there, with horror, 

 enormous cuttle-fish attached to the rocks, the arms of which, 

 being sevei'al yards long, were more than sufficient to strangle 

 a man, (Malte-Brun^ Geogr,, pt. i. p. SI 6.) 



., . ^ w., * .- I am, Sir, &c. 



.>.,,• j.^:^-'. G. J. 



Art. VII. An Attempt to form a Table of the Geological Arrange^ 

 ment of British Fossil Shells, By R. C. Taylor, Esq. F.G.S. 



V The following is an abstract of a more extended index, 

 constructed chiefly from the Minei'al Conchology of Mr. Sow- 

 erby, and from authentic details, after essential corrections in 

 the localities and formations. The genera are distinguished 

 under the four principal subdivisions of Simple Univalves, 

 Simple Bivalves, Complicated Bivalves, and Multilocular 

 Univalves. The species, for the purposes of the Table, can 

 only be enumerated in one formation, although they sometimes 

 appear to recur in several ; but it has been endeavoured to 

 inti'oduce them where they are most characteristic. 



Having the Mineral Conchology for its basis, the list has been 

 carefully augmented by selections from such local catalogues 

 of fossils as have been communicated in the scientific journals 

 and Transactions, and in the publications of eminent natural- 

 ists ; and this has been done with the greater satisfaction, 

 since many of those lists, particularly those in the Transactions 

 of the Geological Society, were previously submitted to Mr. 

 . Sowerby. 



Occasionally the compiler has been enabled to make some 

 additions and corrections from his own acquaintance with the 

 secondary formations. Care has been exercised to avoid re- 

 peating species which are already enumerated in Mineral 

 Conchology, and enlarging the catalogue without sufficient 

 authority. In most of the doubtful cases they have been 

 rejected altogether, and in others they are admitted into 

 the column of formations, but not into that of numbers 

 or species. 



As several species, there is reason to believe, are distributed 

 throughout a series of beds (perhaps even of what are collect- 



