PALAEONTOLOGY OF THE LIAS. 69 



during a time of comparative quiet. There are frequent 

 traces of carbonized wood, and one piece had evidently 

 been floating on the surface of the water before it was 

 covered up, for a colony of Cirripides, to which family our 

 Barnacle belongs, had made it their resting place, and were 

 covered up with it. That the bed has not been subject to 

 any violent action of the sea, may be inferred from the fact 

 that the nodules are not rolled — they are generally flatter on 

 their under side, shewing that they have not been moved out 

 of their position, The bed was probably once continuous, 

 but now it is found in fragmentary and detached parts, of 

 greater or less size, the softer parts having given way to 

 the continuous action of the water. Where any organic 

 remains were enclosed, the stone has become more indu- 

 rated ; the nodules are then generally worn down so as to 

 assume the form of the skeletons they Cover ; from this cause 

 I have in some instances been able to teil the genus of a 

 fish enclosed in one of them, without seeing any part of it. 

 Another reason why it must have been deposited near a 

 coast, would be arrived at from the State in which the 

 insects are preserved; for had they been carried far out to 

 sea, they could not have been in the bame condition. 

 Vegetable remains are not uncommon, and now and then a 

 fruit is to be found. 



Those of you who are in the habit of frequenting the 

 sea side may know a fish which the fishermen call the Ink 

 Fish. It is the Cuttle fish, and the Cuttle bone may 

 frequently be picked up on the sands of the sea shore. It 

 is related to the NautUus, but not like it, having an extemal 

 shell, Providence has provided it with another means of 

 defence, in giving it a bag containing a black fluid, which, 

 when in danger, it discharges, darkening the water in its 

 immediate neighbourhood, and thereby endeavouring to es- 



