XXV. Description of the Paramoudra, a singular fossil body that is 

 found in the Chalk of the North of Ireland ; with some general 

 Observations upon Flints in Chalk, tending to illustrate the History 

 of their formation. 



By the Rev. WILLIAM BUCKLAND, b. d. 



MEMBER OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 

 AND PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY Of OXfORD. 



[Read 15th March, 1816.] 



-nLlVIONG the organic remains of the chalk in the North of 

 Ireland, are large siliceous bodies of a very peculiar character, which 

 I believe have not hitherto been described, and of which the an- 

 nexed drawing, copied from a sketch I made of them as they ap- 

 peared four years ago in some chalk pits near Moira, will give a 

 more correct idea than' can be conveyed by any description.* 



These singular fossils are found in many of the chalk pits from 

 Moira to Belfast and Larne, (seethe Map, pi. 8, vol. 3, of the Geol. 

 Trans.) but are most numerous at Moira. They are known at 

 Belfast by the name of Paramoudra, a word which I could trace to 

 no authentic source, but shall adopt because I find it thus appropri- 

 ated. They have, I believe, never yet been found in the chalk of 

 England, except at Whitlingham near to Norwich, and at some 

 other places in the same neighbourhood, from whence there is a 

 good specimen in the collection of the Geological Society, equal in 

 size to the largest I have seen in Ireland, being about two feet long 



* Plate 24, No. 1, % 3, 4, 5, 0. 



Vol. iv. 3 g 



