108 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [NoV. 1, 



claimed to have discovered remains of these fleshy or muscular parts 

 of the animal. The position in which the body described was dis- 

 covered, and the condition of the other fossils in the same bed, show 

 the existence of circumstances peculiarly favourable to the preserva- 

 tion of the more delicate solid portions of all the then existing species 

 of that immediate neighbourhood. But we have still a right to ask 

 for more e^iidence as to the nature of these soft parts, and the manner 

 of their connexion with the shell. It appears natural to suppose that 

 the external soft parts of the animal, if any such existed, would be 

 connected with that portion of the internal animal occupying the 

 large outer chamber of the shell. In this example, judging from the 

 figure, and from my recollection of the specimen, the fossilized " soft 

 parts " are found enveloping the smaller extremity of the shell, while 

 the outer chamber and larger extremity is broken off. This condi- 

 tion of the enveloping soft body seems to me an objection to such an 

 explanation, even admitting that the "soft parts " could be petrified 

 under the circumstances. This objection however may not be con- 

 clusive, and I would only suggest it for consideration before noticing 

 other facts. 



Bodies similar to that described by Mr. Anthony have been known 

 to me in the shales of New York for ten years, but I have always 

 regarded them as concretionary, though on their first discovery they 

 were supposed by several naturalists to be the remains of the external 

 fleshy body of the Orthoceras. The peculiar striated surface of Mr. 

 Anthony's specimen corresponds with all those seen in New York, 

 and the bilobate form is likewise the ordinary one. This character 

 however appears to be due to previous compression, for the shell is 

 usually flattened and broken along a central depressed line. 



It is scarcely probable that such an opinion would be advanced by 

 any one unless the mind had been pre-occupied by the belief that the 

 Orthocerata were composed of an internal chambered shell, and an 

 external soft body enveloping that shell. This prejudice is therefore 

 strongly sustained by such a discovery, should it be proved that 

 bodies of the kind described are found only in connection -with shells 

 of the Orthoceras ; but this is far from being true. 



To commence with the lower strata — I have found both the bivalve 

 acephala and the spiral univalves with a similar sac-like attachment 

 of what is here regarded as the "soft parts" of the animal, but 

 which I prefer to regard as a shaly accretion wath a striated surface * . 



* Concretionary action takes place in all our shaly deposits in which animal mat- 

 ter exists, particularly if iron be present, to form particles or nodules, or even 

 diffused particles of iron pyrites which aid in producing this action. Vegetable 

 matter is sometimes a nucleus for such aggregation. Often there is no visible 

 nucleus, and we cannot readily determine the first cause of the action. When 

 the nucleus is organic, the concretionary masses or enclosing sacs usually assume 

 a bilobate or bilateral form, in other cases they are of various and irregular forms. 

 The surface of these bodies is almost always striated, and where there is only a 

 thin coating of shaly matter around the organic body, or a harder inorganic cal- 

 careous nodule, it appears not unlike the effect produced by smearing some hard 

 body with adhesive clay, and then removing as much as possible by hard pressure 

 and direct motion of the palm of the hand. These surfaces have often the pecu- 



