OF CREATION. 147 



conical receptacle of the plates. The belemnite, in 

 fact, was known to consist of a chambered shell, 

 like the Orthoceratite, contained in another shell of 

 curious structure, and had been supposed to belong 

 to an animal like the nautilus. 



The first evidence by which any direct light was 

 thrown on the nature of the animal provided with 

 this shell, was detected by Dr. Buckland and M. 

 Agassiz, who examined some specimens of belem- 

 nite, in which a fossil ink-bag, and the duct or pen 

 by which the ink was shot out into the water, was 

 preserved in the outer chamber of the shell. It must 

 be remembered that the ink-bag has not been 

 found in any specimen of ammonite or nautilus, 

 and is apparently a necessary adjunct to the naked 

 cephalopods of high organization ; so that, on this 

 discovery of its presence in the belemnite, it became 

 probable that the shell had been internal, and that 

 the animal belonged to the group of more highly 

 organized Cephalopoda, and not that in which the 

 nautilus and ammonite were classed. 



After this discovery of the ink-bag, it seemed 

 that little more could be expected in the way of de- 

 termining the habit of the belemnite, till it was 

 also made out from specimens in foreign beds that 

 the animal must have extended considerably beyond 

 the shell. Fortunately, however, in some specimens 

 recently obtained,* not only the ink-bag, but the 

 muscular mantle, the head, and its crown of arms, 



* These specimens are from the Oxford clay, and the animal and its 

 shell will be again alluded to and figured when treating of the fossils of 

 the Oolitic period. It is referred to here as being a common lias fossil, 

 and as one of the early and most remarkable associates of the ammonite. 



H 2 



