131 



however, worthy of notice ; since it serves to show, although perhaps 

 not decidedly, that the belemnite is not a nucleus, which was contained 

 in a shell, but that it now possesses the same surface which it did in its 

 recent state. This is however more plainly evinced by the specimen, 

 Plate VIII. Fig. 9, in which this substance has been eroded, and 

 apparently by some insect, to a considerable depth. That this was 

 effected previous to its existence in a spathose state, cannot be denied 

 to be most probable ; and if the substance had been gelatinous, and con- 

 tained in a shell, these erosions could only have been of the shell, and 

 consequently exterior. This circumstance, therefore, is strongly in 

 proof of this part of the belemnite having been a solid substance, ca- 

 pable of admitting the attacks of an insect, and of bearing the marks of 

 the injury. 



De Luc and Lamarck very -ingeniously suppose, that the belemnite 

 itself was contained within the body of the animal, in the same manner 

 as the bone of the sepia or cuttle-fish. This opinion is far from being 

 without probability ; but it does not appear that, at present, we possess 

 any means of forming a determination on this point. 



The Belemnite deserves to be placed among the earliest fossils, not 

 only from the recent belemnite being, in all probability, lost; but from 

 the fossils with which it is in general associated, the Cornu ammonis, 

 Encritius, &c. having also outlived their recent analogues. 



M. Walch doubts the existence of silicious nuclei of the belemnites. 

 He says : " Que la noyau pierreuse de la belemnite puisse parvenir a 

 un si haut degre de durete qu'elle donne du feu lorsqu'elle est frappee 

 avec 1'acier, c'est du quoi nous doutons beaucoup. Worm, Lange, 

 Brukman, et d'autres 1'ont soutenu, mais probablement ces naturalistes 

 ont confbndu avec les belemnites une sorte du pierre a feu, qui leur 

 resemble parfaitement et que Ton trouve dans la craye. Monumens des 

 Catastrophes, Sfc. Tome n. p. 229. That the cast of the conical cavity 

 of the belemnite may be of such a degree of hardness, there can, how- 

 ever, be no doubt. I possess one, which is completely silicious; and 



