5Q8 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1748. 



have taken them for the different parts of animals, as teeth, horns, bones, &c. 

 in which even these again have differed, as to the referring them to land or ma- 

 rine animals; and they have been by others supposed of mineral origin, or lapides 

 sui generis. What they really are, will probably be still very difficult to deter- 

 mine; but as one principal objection to their being originally marine bodies, 

 which supposition seems to carry the greatest colour of probability, has been, 

 that no marine bodies have been found adhering to them, that objection will be 

 obviated by no less than two specimens, from the same place, of belemnitae, to 

 which undoubted marine substances are found firmly affixed. These curious 

 fossils were found in a chalk pit in Norfolk; whence they weie sent not long 

 before to his father, Mr. Henry Baker, f.r.s. 



Fig. 2, pi. 10, is a belemnites, whose apex is perfect; the conic cavity, 

 and the longitudinal seam, evidently distinguishable $ which, as well as the 

 contexture of its substance, show it to be a true belemnites; but on its sur- 

 face are placed, in their natural condition, by which he means, not at all seem- 

 ingly petrified, or otherwise altered, two of those vermiculi so frequently fovmd 

 sticking to oysters, scallops, and many other kinds of shells, when taken out of 

 the sea. 



Fig. 3, a frustum of another belemnites, the apex broken off, but the conic 

 cavity is still remaining, and shown at a. To this belemnites adheres a shell of 

 the oyster kind, which is fastened so strongly, that they are not to be separated 

 without breaking; which shell, as well as the before-mentioned vermiculi, seems 

 not altered in its substance, but appears like a recent one, of which many are to 

 be met with in the cabinets of the curious. 



Fig. 4, shows the other side of the said shell, where the cardo or hinge at b 

 is plainly discernible; at c appears the broken end of the belemnites, where the 

 radiated contexture, well known to belong to their bodies, is represented, as also 

 the longitudinal seam at d. 



As these specimens are undeniable proofs of marine bodies adhering to belem- 

 nitae, several of the curious who have seen them, are of opinion, that they tend 

 likewise to prove the belemnitae to be marine productions. It may probably be 

 objected, that these shells might have been brought and deposited near the belem- 

 nitae to which they are affixed, by whatever mighty change it came to pass that 

 productions of the sea are discovered in most countries at great depths in the 

 earth, and in the bowels of mountains at great distances from the sea, even sup- 

 posing the belemnitae to be lapides sui generis, and produced in the earth, and 

 that these shells might be cemented to them afterwards by some mineral, 

 stony, or other matter. But the following observations will render this impro- 

 bable; for, 



1. The vermiculi of fig. 2 are not any species of the tubuli marini, found 





