47 



Moorii," &c., being named after him by scientific friends and 

 Societies. The peculiar strata Mr. Moore undertook to 

 illustrate was that of which many examples existed round 

 Ilminster— the middle and upper Lias. These deposits were 

 particularly rich in fossil remains. In the sea beds were in- 

 numerable foraminifera, amongst which was found, in great 

 profusion, the polymorphema. A peculiar clay or sand, a 

 sort of sea or fish bed, exhibited the formation of certain 

 oddly shaped nodules or stones. Those contained various 

 ancient remains. The cuttle fish, the icthyosaurus, the 

 Lethiosaurus, a production almost peculiar to the district, 

 and the pachydormis, a beautiful fish found between the 

 middle and upper Lias. Adjoining this bed was another in 

 in which were ammonites and belemnites in great profusion, 

 the former varying in size from shells of nine inches to half 

 an inch in diameter ; whilst the belemnites existed in such 

 numbers, that in the face of a quarry, which, accompanied 

 by Mr. Moore, I examined, they were sticking out of the 

 deposit like so many ten-penny nails, and might be col- 

 lected two or three at a time. Mr. Moore rendered 

 his paper particularly interesting by the perfect mastery he 

 exhibited over his subject, and the illustrations he gave 

 from time to time of the geological remains to which he had 

 called attention. In allusion to the curiously shaped nodules 

 containing the fossil remains of fish, crustatea, lizards, &c., 

 the Lecturer selected two or three specimens " He had at- 

 tained," he said, " perfect knowledge of their contents from 

 their outward conformation. The fish or lizard perishing 

 in the sea or on its bed had attracted around it, certain 

 stony elements, and so remained petrified in its rocky 

 tomb for an infinitude of ages." " This stone," said Mr. 

 Moore " I will wager a hundred pounds, contains a cuttle 

 fish, and this, a lizard." Adroitly applying the hammer to 

 the first, in a stroke or two, it split equally asunder, 

 revealing a beautiful specimen of the cuttle fish. Mr. 

 Moore, placing a moistened finger on the sepia contained in 



