CEPHALOPODA. i 
duced, truncated and furnished with a deep conical cavity (the alveolus), containing the 
distal portion of a horny or fibro-calcareous chambered shell (the phragmacone), perforated 
on the ventral part by a marginal siphuncle, and from the dorso-lateral margins of the 
anterior extremity of which shell proceed two elongated, slender, testaceous processes ; the 
whole body being invested with a thin, testaceous, or corneo-calcareous integument (the 
capsule, or periostricum).' 
* On the subject of the Belemnite and allied forms, the reader is referred to the Memoir by Professor 
Owen, in the ‘Phil. Trans.,’ 1844, p. 65; and the interesting papers in the same work, by G. A. Mantell, 
Esq., LL.D., ‘Phil. Trans.,’ 1848, p. 171, and 1850, p. 393; also to the ‘ Paleontologie Francaise, Terrains 
Jurassiques,’ p. 40, by M. A. D’Orbigny. 
In corroboration of the interesting facts cited by Dr. Mantell, respecting the continuation of the 
phragmacone of the Belemnite, we quote the following graphic statement of a writer of the last century as 
bearing on the subject. The remarks are contained in an account descriptive of the sinking of a well at 
Montbard, in 1774. 
«There were, moveover, great numbers of Belemnites, all conical, the largest being from 7 to 8 inches 
long. They were pointed like an arrow at one end, and the other terminated irregularly, and was flattened, 
as if they had been crushed. They were brown, both on the outside and inside, and were formed of a 
material, arranged internally in transverse or radiating striee, which met at the axis of the Belenmite. This 
axis was, in all, rather eccentric, and marked from one extremity to the other by a fine white line. When- 
ever the Belemnite attained a certain size, the base contained a small cone, more or less long, made up of 
cells, in the form of plates set one within the other (as in Nautili). The white line ended at the summit of 
the cone. This small cone was invested along its whole length by a yellowish crustaceous pellicle, extremely 
thin, although composed of several layers; and the body of the Belemnite (with a radiating structure), 
which enclosed the whole, became thin in proportion as the diameter of the cone increased. Such, 
generally, was the character of the Belemnites which were found mingled with the soil thrown out of the 
shaft, and which character is common to all those of this species. In order to ascertain the position which 
the Belemnites occupied in the beds, several portions were softened carefully, and it was found that they all 
laid flat, and parallel with the beds. What most astonished us, and what has not hitherto been noticed, was 
this, that we then perceived, that to the extremity of the base of all the Belemnites, was attached an 
appendage of a yellowish colour, composed of a substance like that of the shells, and which was shaped like 
the widened part of a funnel which had been flattened. Many of these were two inches long, one inch 
broad at the further end, and about six lines at the point where they were attached to the Belemnite. In 
examining closely this shelly or crustaceous prolongation (which was so delicate that it could scarcely be 
touched without breaking), I observed that this part of the Belemnite, which has not hitherto been recog- 
nised, is nothing more than the continuation of the thin shell or crust which covers the little chambered 
cone, of which I have already spoken; so that it may be said, that all Belemnites which are at present to 
be found in collections of Natural History are imperfect ; and that the portion we are acquainted with is 
only, as it were, the case or covering of a portion of the shell which at one time enclosed the animal.” 
Buffon, ‘Epochs de la Nature,’ i, Epoch 5, p. 143. 
‘ Historie des Mineraux, des argiles et de glaises,’ vi, p. 122. 
The above passage is translated from the ‘Explication de la Carte Geologique de France,’ tom. 2, 
p. 350. 
