232 FOSSIL PENS. 



fossil ink, inasmuch as the latter is impregnated with car- 

 bonate of lime. 



In a communication to the Geological Society, February 

 1829, I announced that these fossil ink-bags had been dis- 

 covered in the Lias at Lyme Regis, in connexion with 

 horny bodies, resembling the pen of a recent Loligo. 



These fossil pens are without any trace of nacre, and are 

 composed of a thin, laminated, semi-transparent substance, 

 resembUng horn. Their state of preservation is such as to 

 admit of a minute comparison of their internal structure 

 with that of the pen of the recent Lohgo ; and leads to the 

 same result which we have collected from the examination 

 of so many other examples of fossil organic remains; 

 namely, that although fossil species usually differ from their 

 living representatives, still the same principles of construc- 

 tion have prevailed through every cognate genus, and often 

 also through the entire families under which these genera 

 are comprehended. 



The petrified remains of fossil Loligo, therefore, add 

 another hnk to the chain of argument which we are pursuing, 

 and aid us in connecting successive systems of creation 

 which have followed each other upon our Planet, as parts of 

 one grand and uniform Design. Thus the union of a bag 

 of ink with an organ resembling a pen in the recent Loligo, 

 is a peculiar and striking association of contrivances, afford- 

 ing compensation for the deficiency of an external shell, to 

 an animal much exposed to destruction from its fellow- 

 tenants of the deep ; we find a similar association of the 

 same organs in the petrified remains of extinct species of 

 the same family, that are preserved in the ancient marl and 

 limestone strata of the Lias. Cuvier drew his figures of the 

 recent Sepia with ink extracted from its own body. I have 

 drawings of the remains of extinct species prepared also 

 with their own ink : with this fossil ink I might record the 

 fact, and explain the causes of its wonderful preservation. 

 I might register the proofs of instantaneous death detected 



