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EDWARD CHARLESWORTH, ESQ., P.G.S., ETC., ON THE 



equal in size to the largest I have seen in Ireland, being 

 about two feet long and one foot in diameter. No two of 

 these bodies are found exactly alike in all their proportions. 

 Their length commonly varies from one to two feet, their 

 thickness from six to twelve inches. Their substance in all 

 cases is flint. These bodies have a central aperture passing 

 through their long diameter. These apertures are always 

 filled with chalk of the same nature as the ehalk in which the 

 flint masses are imbedded. Then Dr. Buckland goes on with 

 descriptive details which I pass over, but I quote the Doctor's 

 account of the position of these bodies. The Paramoudras 



THE PARAMOUDRAS AS SEEN BY DR. BUCKLAND IN THE CHALK OF 

 ANTRIM. 



sometimes lie horizontally, sometimes inclined or erect. They 

 are generally insulated, and altogether unconnected with 

 the ordinary horizontal strata of flints which accompany them. 

 Sometimes the extremities of two specimens are found in 

 contact ; but this seems to be the result of accidental juxta- 

 position, not of any original connexion. But I mention it 

 because an idea used to prevail at Belfast that the Paramou- 

 dras are occasionally found linked together in a kind of chain. 

 The animal history of these fossils, says Dr. Buckland, is 

 involved in much obscurity, as they display no traces of 



