26 



aiANTS AND PIGMIES. 





'1'- 



board of the steamer Cortes. It nearly filled a molasses 

 puncheon. An exquisite model of this monster was suspended 

 overhead in the front of the United States Department, Inter- 

 national Fisheries Exhibition. About the mid<llo of the same 

 department was another model of a kindred monster, the 

 Octopus, with its writhing snake-like arras. It was impossible 

 to look even at these without a shudder. Proceeding on our 

 way we call a halt at Folkestone, at the Strait of Dover. Here 

 in the Gault, Lower Cretaceous (chalk) formation, there is 

 abundance of Ammonites, These are generally of small size — 

 many are pigmean, literally the size of a pin head. We have 

 worn for many years in our scarf-pin, an Ammointos splcndens 

 half an inch in diameter. In the so called " Folkestone pud- 

 dings" in our Museum are many of them. Modern repre- 

 sentatives of small Cephalopods are the little Spinila laevis 

 (shell) which we have, collected on the shores of Sable Island, 

 near the edge of the Gulf Stream, around the New Hebrides, 

 and in the Indian Ocean. This is found in all the warmer 

 seas. Associated with the Ammonites are the shells of other 

 Cephalopods. These have names appropriate to their forms, 

 e. (/., Scaphites (boat shaped), Hamites (hook), Bacculites 

 (staff), Belemnites (dart). We will meet with similar forms 

 of corresponding age in the sequel. 



Walking towards Dover we come to Shakespeare's Cliff. 

 Here we see an Ammonite, recently disentombed from the 

 chalky cliffs by the action of the sea. Wo are sorry to leave 

 it to the merciless destroyer. It would take a strong man to 

 carry it. We are consoled, however, by findiiig specimens of 

 other interesting remains of the Chalk Period. These are to 

 be found in our Museum collections, side by side with a 

 tolerably large Ammonites no'iosus, which we purchased from 

 a workman at the chalk-pits ot Lewes. 



10, In a farther search for Ammonites we cross the Strait 

 of Dover, and proceed to Provence, the south-east department 

 of Fmnce. We search the Liassic formation under the guid- 

 ance of M. M. Lory and Hebert, members of the Socic^t^ 

 Geologique de France, and Professors of Geology in Gronoble 



