GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS NEAR DUNSTER 147 
approach of danger, and sinking into the sea-depths by 
the aid of their syphon. With rapid backward motion, 
their kindred, the Sepie and Lolgenes, the cuttle-fish 
of that period, dart after their prey, and then, as now, 
when attacked in its turn, envelope themselves in a 
cloud of black ink, and so make their escape. Close 
by, in deep pools and on rocky ledges, the marvellous 
enerinite lifts its tall stem, spreads out its thousand arms, 
opens its flower-like petals—every stem, every arm, every 
petal, built up of thousands and tens of thausands of sepa- 
rate joints, and each joint moveable and supplied with the 
requisite muscular apparatus. While we gaze on the 
marvellous beauty of this plant-like star-fish, near the 
shore, the huge Ichthyosaurus plunges into the deep waters 
after its prey, devouring everything within reach, not 
sparing even the young of its own species. Leaving these 
Saurian monsters of the deep—part lizard and part 
fish—which for the most part frequent the deep waters, 
we look with wonder on the ‚Plesiosaurus—a creature 
with the body of a fish, the tail of a crocodile, the 
head of a lizard, and a long neck like a huge snake, now 
swan-like swimming on the sea, and anon clambering along 
the shore—not improbably on this very spot of earth where 
we are now met to talk of them and their times. Then, 
more curious than all, we behold flitting around us that 
most extraordinary compound of bird and bat and lizard, 
the Pierodactyl—a cereature which the renowned Cuvier 
pronounced the furthest removed of any from the types of 
living beings with which we are acquainted. That these 
forms of life existed here we know, for the rocks in this 
neighbourhood contain their skeletons, and their remains 
most clearly explain the habits of their life. 
Such are a few among the leading facts in the history 
