OF CREATION. 119 



columns proceed, and each of these ten columns 

 immediately splits itself into two, so that there are 

 twenty moveable arms of no great length imme- 

 diately above the body, each of them being pro- 

 vided with a number of fingers made up of similar 

 small stony columns admitting of considerable mo- 

 tion, by means of which food could be obtained 

 and conveyed at once to the stomach of the animal. 

 It is calculated that nearly thirty thousand separate 

 pieces of stone exist in the skeleton of this singular 

 creature. 



Among the shell-fish of this period, which is a 

 kind of transition from the earliest to the next suc- 

 ceeding one, there are few species that require very 

 special notice, although the whole group taken to- 

 gether is interesting, as showing an approximation 

 in general character to that of existing seas, without 

 any of the species being 

 identical, and with little 

 approach even to exist- 

 ing genera. Among the 

 cuttle-fish, and especially 

 those animals of the group 

 defended by shelly cover- 

 ings, and resembling the 

 nautilus, there is a curious 

 example forming a link CERATITB. 



between the goniatite of the mountain limestone, 

 and the ammonite of the secondary period. This 

 shell is known as the Ceratite (fig. 45), and will be 

 alluded to again in describing the shells of the next 

 group of deposits. 



The fishes of the period we are now considering. 



