460 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. V. 



bers there is an ink-bag lying on what appears to be part of a sepi- 

 ostaire, for it is a yellowish substance, finely striated transversely, 

 and composed of laminae of unequal density." 1 The soft body of the 

 animal, of an elongated form, with a pair of lateral fins, two large sessile 

 eyes, eight uncinated arms, a pair of long tentacula, and a sac, or 

 ink-bag, containing the inspissated sepia, are preserved in juxtaposi- 

 tion in several examples discovered by Mr. Pearce, Mr. Buy, my son, 

 and other collectors. A splendid specimen in the Case before us shows 

 these several parts. (Lign. 100.) 



The osselet, or guard of the Belemnoteuthis, like that of the Belem- 

 nite, is of a nbro-radiated structure, and contains a chambered shelly 

 phragmocone ; it is of a horny texture, and is never fossilized by calca- 

 reous spar, as is almost invariably the case with that of the Belemnite. 



Professor 0\ven, in a communication to the Eoyal Society in 1844, 2 

 described the Belemnoteuthis as the soft parts of the Belemnite ; a mis- 

 take the more extraordinary as Mr. Channing Pearce's correct interpre- 

 tation of the true nature of the Belemnoteuthis was published two years 

 previously. Professor Owen, assuming that the osselet of the latter (see 

 Lign. 100, e,f.) was the phragmocone of the former separated from its 

 rostrum or guard, (Lign. 99, c,) blended these two distinct genera 

 into one, and gave a restored figure of the animal, based on this erro- 

 neous idea of the Belemnite (Philos. Trans. 1844, PI. VIII.). 3 The disco- 

 very of some remarkably perfect Belemnites by my son, when constructing 

 a branch of the Great Western Railway, first drew my attention to the 

 subject, and convinced me of the mistake into which Professor Owen 

 had fallen, and of the accuracy of the original interpretation of Mr. 

 Channing Pearce, which that sagacious and acute observer, Mr. Charles- 

 worth, had always declared to be the true one. The result of my inves- 

 tigations was communicated to the Royal Society, and is published in 

 the Phil Trans. 1848, and 1850. 4 



1 " Proceedings of the Geological Society," vol. iii. p. 593. 



2 " A Description of certain Belemnites found with a great proportion 

 of their soft parts, in the Oxford Clay, at Christian Malford in Wilt- 

 shire." Phil. Trans. 1844, p. 65. For this memoir one of the Royal 

 Medals was awarded. 



3 An abstract of this memoir, and a figure of the cephalopodous mer- 

 maid as that of the animal of the Belemnite, are given in my " Medals of 

 Creation," p. 468, for which I beg to apologise to the purchasers of that 

 work ; the error will be corrected in the edition now in preparation. 

 See " Pictorial Atlas of Organic Remains," article Belemnite, p. 170. 



4 In those communications I most studiously endeavoured to avoid 

 giving offence to the eminent anatomist, whose genius and industry I so 

 much admire, and whose scientific labours I have so highly eulogized, and 

 have done everything in my power to promote, by placing at his disposal 

 original drawings of considerable value, and hundreds of specimens col- 

 lected by my son; but, alas ! to doubt Professor Owen's infallibility was 

 a deadly sin, and I have no hope of forgiveness ! hence originated the 

 " unamidble exaggerations" and " misrepresentations" which I have 

 been compelled in self-defence, and to my deep regret, to notice in a 

 previous chapter (ante, p. 192). 



