ENIGMATICAL FLINT BODIES BEARING THE NAME PARAMOUDRA. 211 



Werner, one of the distinguished names in the early history 

 of geological science, started the theory that during the 

 deposition of the chalk, a quantity of gas was set free, which 

 being unable to escape, gave rise to numerous cavities in the 

 chalk, and that the flint being precipitated from its solution 

 was infiltrated into these cavities. Dr. Buckland refuses to 

 accept this theory, and suggests that probably flint and 

 chalk were deposited together in the form of viscid fluids ; 

 and that as the process of consolidation went forward, these 

 two substances separated by cohesive or attractive forces 

 operating uniformly upon the respective atoms of each. 



The late distinguished chemist, Dr. Turner, referring to 

 this subject in the Philosophical Magazine for July, 1833, 

 observes that although if we now reduce flint to the state of 

 powder no sensible portion of it is dissolved when steeped in 

 water, yet at the moment of its separation from a state of 

 combination with some other mineral body, it is readily 

 soluble : but that while so dissolved the slightest cause will 

 occasion it to revert to the solid state. It is, then, only 

 necessary to assume that the cretaceous ocean had access to 

 rocks in the constitution of which silex was an ingredient, 

 and that these rocks were undergoing decomposition. The 

 silex at the moment of its separation from the other rock 

 constituents Avould be taken up and disseminated through 

 the waters of the ocean, and its subsequent reversal to the 

 solid form is attributed by Dr. Turner to the emission of 

 gases from the decomposition of organic bodies. 



Thus far I have been dealing with the great geological 

 problem of flint as found in chalk. I now pass on to submit 

 to the members of this Society the consideration of a most 

 remarkable enigma connected with the chalk-flint story, 

 which has been an enigma ever since when in the transac- 

 tions of the Geological Society for 1816 it was brought 

 under the notice of philosophers and men of science by the 

 great geologist, Dr. Buckland. The title of Dr. Buckland's 

 paper is " Description of the Paramoudra, a singular fossil body 

 found, in the chalk of the north of Ireland." These singular 

 fossils, says Dr. Buckland, are found in many of the chalk- 

 pits from Moira to Belfast and Lame, but are most numerous 

 at Moira. They are known at Belfast by the name Para- 

 moudra, a word which I could trace to no authentic source, 

 but shall adopt. They have, I believe, never yet been found 

 in the chalk of England, except at VVhitlingham near Norwich, 

 whence there is a good specimen in the Geological Society 



