216 EDWARD CHARLESWORTH, ESQ., F.G.S., ETC., ON THE 



" Can this curious tube be in any way connected with 

 the aggregation of flinty matter forming the Paramoudral 

 column ? If the Paramoudras were originally sponges or 

 organic bodies of any kind, how comes it that wdien broken 

 they present no organic structure or, at any rate, nothing 

 which distinguishes Paramoudra flint from flint as it occurs 

 in the nodular flints of the horizontal layers. After spending 

 a morning in the Horstead Quarry, with Mr. Fitch as guide, 

 and breaking up a number of the Paramoudras, we found the 

 tube present in every case ; sometimes, however, so nearly 

 obliterated as to be only traceable by the discoloration of the 

 chalk round its original site. The tube varies in diameter 

 from that of a quill to a finger. The wall of the tube is 

 generally of a green colour and about as thick as the skin of 

 an apple. The substance which fills it is chalk. Dr. Bower- 

 bank finds it to consist of silicious particles. 



I believe the sole merit of this interesting discovery rests 

 with my friend Mr. Fitch." 



The late Professor Morris, of University College, in his 

 most valuable list of all British Published Fossils, classes 

 the Paramoudras as sponges ; but this location of these 

 bodies as sponges carries no weight with it, because 

 Professor Morris was compelled either to adopt the position 

 assigned by their original describer, or to locate them some- 

 where else. He being unable to adopt the latter course, 

 naturally was content with following Dr. Buckland, and 

 included the Paramoudras as sponges. 



A period of about 50 years having elapsed, Sir C. Lyell 

 renews the consideration of the Paramoudra enigma, and in 

 his " Students' Elements of Geology,'* writes as follows : — 



A. more difficult enig-ma is presented by the occurrence (in the 

 chalk) of certain huge flints . . occurring singly or arranged 

 in nearly continuous columns at right angles to the ordinary and 

 horizontal layers of smaller flints. I visited, in the year 1825, an 

 extensive range of quarries on the River Bure, near Horstead, 



. which afforded a continuous section a quarter of a mile in 

 length, of white chalk, exposed to the depth of about 26 feet and 

 covered by a bed of gravel. The Potstones (Paramoudras) . 

 were usually about 3 feet in height and about one foot in transverse 

 diameter, placed in vertical rows like pillars, . . usually from 

 20 to 30 feet apart. . . These rows did not terminate down- 

 wards in any instance which I could examine ; or upwards, except 

 at the point where they were cut off abruptly by the bed of gravel. 

 Dr. Buckland has described very similar phenomena as 

 characterising the white chalk on the north coast of Antrim. These 



