ENIGMATICAL FLINT BODIES BEAEING THE NA.ME PAEAMOUDEA. 219 



The supposition that Sir Charles was ignorant of Mr. Fitch's 

 discovery cannot, therefore, for a moment be entertained, 

 and his wholly ignoring that discovery is, to me, incom- 

 prehensible. Mr. Fitch's discovery is an additional factor 

 of mystery in the Paramoudra story. Are we to regard 

 the green tube occupying the centre of the chalk core, 

 as an original part of the Paramoudra, or was it of 

 subsequent introduction ? It is impossible to overrate 

 the interest of this strangely neglected feature in the 

 Paramoudra story. But here I must bring my discourse 

 to an end, hoping that what 1 have put before the Members 

 of the Victoria Institute, may have the effect of renewing 

 interest in the attempts to solve one of the most remarkable 

 enigmas in the whole range of geological science. 



SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR. 



Ehrenberg, the great authority on Microscopic Life, states as 

 the result of his examination of Paramoudra flints that it exhibits 

 no sponge structure, consequently he rejects the Sponge theory, 

 but accompanies that rejection by a theory of his own, one that 

 appears to me as little satisfactory as the theory advanced by 

 Sir Chas. Lyell (see Annals of Natural History, 1893). 



Dr. Hinde is the author of an illustrated catalogue of the fossil 

 sponges in the Cromwell Road Museum, a work which will prove 

 of the greatest possible value to students. In this work there is 

 no reference to Paramoudras, an omission which can hardly be 

 regarded as otherwise than a denial that these bodies are sponges. 

 But on the other hand, Prof. Sollas, now of Dublin, a high 

 authority on both recent and fossil sponges, unhesitatingly treats 

 of the Paramoudras as representing the former existence in the 

 cretaceous sea of Neptune's Cup sponges (Annals of Natural 

 History, 1880). Now, this living sponge gives us four factors 

 for comparison with its alleged fossil representative — 



First, Neptune's Cup has sponge structure throughout its 

 entire mass ; 



Secondly, it has the essential character of a cup ; 



Thirdly, the cup may be said to crown a massive stalk ; 



Fourthly, the stalk has a base of attachment or rather of 

 implantation. 



But, a Paramoudra is a hollow flint cylinder, under the 

 microscope shewing— 



No sponge structure ; 



It is not a cup ; 



Nor has it a stalk ; 



Nor a base of attachment. 



