TUBE IN THE PARAMOUDRA. 



303 



near Bidford, in Warwickshire, where the beds of limestone 

 near the base of the lias are largely quarried for flooring, &c. 

 These beds of limestone, besides the usual Ammonites, &c. 

 of the lias, occasionally contain specimens of Ichthyosauri^ 

 Plesiosauri, three or four species of fish, crustaceans, and 

 two or three species of ferns. The latter circumstance indi- 

 cates the proximity of land at the time of the deposition of 

 the strata, a supposition which is further borne out by the 

 fossil insect above described. 



One of the species of fish found here appears to be a Cy- 

 cloid, and furnishes an exception to the generalization of 

 M. Agissiz, that no cycloidian fish occur below the chalk. 



In the first series of this Magazine, vol. v. p. 549, is a 

 figure of a fossil fish from Wilmcote (misspelt Wilments), 

 near Binton. This specimen is now in the Warwick Museum, 

 and has been figured by M. Agassiz, under the name of Te- 

 tragonolepis angulifer. 



The rock in which these fossils are found, is a fine-grained 

 blue limestone, dividing into thin slabs, resembling in tex- 

 ture the Solenhofen stone, and like it adapted to lithographic 

 purposes. 



Cracomhe House, Evesham, 

 May 7th, 1840. 



Art. IX. — JSfotice of the existence of a distinct Tube within the 

 hollows of the Paramoudra. By Robt. Fitch, Esq., F.G.S. 



After the interest which has been felt upon the subject 

 of the Paramoudras or pot-stones of the chalk, through the 

 observations of Professors Buckland, Ehren- 

 berg, and other writers, I am surprised that 

 one fact in the history of these most singular 

 bodies should hitherto have escaped notice: — 

 I refer to the existence of a central tube 

 passing through the long axis of each chalk 

 nucleus, and as I am led to imagine, origi- 

 nally forming a connecting link between the 

 detached pieces of the entire column, as seen 

 in the accompanying section (fig. 14). In 

 this sketch I have represented the extremities 

 of the two Paramoudras in contact, as I have 

 frequently found this to be the case. Dr. 

 Buckland attributes their being so to accident, 

 remarking " sometimes the extremities of two 

 specimens are found in contact, but this seems 

 to be the result of accidental juxta-position, not of any ori- 



