io NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



permission was given to me to examine for this article ; and 

 though I was disappointed as to the fossil, I was highly 

 gratified with the sight of several of the shells themselves 

 in high preservation. This bivalve is only known to in- 

 habit the Indian Ocean, where it fixes itself to a zoophyte, 

 known by the name Gorgonia. The curious foldings of 

 the suture the one into the other, the alternate flutings 

 or grooves, and the curved form of my specimen being 

 much easier expressed by the pencil than by words, I 

 have caused it to be drawn and engraved. 



Cornua Atnmonis are very common about this village. 

 As we were cutting an inclining path up The Hanger, the 

 labourer found them frequently on that steep, just under 

 the soil, in the chalk, and of a considerable size. In the 

 lane above Well-head, in the way to Emshot, they abound in 

 the bank in a darkish sort of marl ; and are usually very 

 small and soft : but in Clay's Pond, a little farther on, at 

 the end of the pit, where the soil is dug out for manure, 

 I have occasionally observed them of large dimensions, 

 perhaps fourteen or sixteen inches in diameter. But as 

 these did not consist of firm stone, but were formed of a 

 kind of terra lapidosa, or hardened clay, as soon as they 

 were exposed to the rains and frost they mouldered away. 

 These seemed as if they were a very recent production. In 

 the chalk-pit, at the north-west end of The Hanger, large 

 nautili are sometimes observed. 



In the very thickest strata of our freestone, and at con- 

 siderable depths, well-diggers often find large scallops or 

 pectines, having both shells deeply striated, and ridged and 

 furrowed alternately. They are highly impregnated with, 

 if not wholly composed of, the stone of the quarry. 



