32 BRITISH BELEMNITES. 



The Inferior Oolite contains many species, in the lower beds especially, and from 

 this point downwards through the sands, and clays, and limestones, of the Liassic series, 

 Belemnites are almost never absent from the section till we reach the zone of Ammonites 

 Bucklandi. Only in the upper part of this zone have they been found by Mr. Sanders 

 at Salford, and by Mr. Day at Lyme Regis. I have not, with my own hands, 

 after three careful examinations of the same zone at Lyme Regis, obtained a sinc^le 

 example ; nor any trace of one, either in the lower parts of that zone or in the subjacent 

 bands with Ammonites planorhis. None has ever been seen by me in the strata below 

 from any place in the British Isles. 



" Belemnite-Beds " are best exemplified in the Lias, where thin bands of strata are 

 remarkably stored, and even crowded, with the guards of Belemnites. It will be enou^^h 

 to cite in the Southern Lias the Avell-known rich layer at the foot of Golden Cap, and on 

 the front of Black Venn, near Lyme Regis. On the Yorkshire coast are several of these 

 bands, in the Lower, Middle, and Upper Lias— difi'erent species in each of these cases. 

 The Cephalopoda-Bed, as it is called, just at the junction of the Liassic Sands with the 

 Inferior Oolite, is sometimes very rich in Belemnites, and so are parts of the Oxford 

 Clay, the Red Chalk of Speeton, and the upper layers of the White Chalk. As far as 

 mere number is in question, these may be called " Belemnite-Beds," but they are not 

 so in the same sense as the Liassic layers already mentioned. 



Till within a short time, the only examples of Belemnites in the strata of Britain, 

 even aj)proaching to completeness, were found in the Oxford Clay near Chippenham, 

 where also shells of Ammonites were more than usually perfect ; and other Cephalopoda 

 retained the form of some of the softer parts. Lately, Mr. Day was successful in 

 extracting from the Lias of Lyme Regis several specimens in which the hooks of the 

 arms were preserved, the arms having disappeared, and the greater part of the phragmo- 

 cone appeared in its place as regards the sparry guard. Possibly, by a careful search in 

 the Gault of Folkstone, the true shape and some further details of the smaller species of 

 Belemnitella3 may be recovered. 



The descriptions of species will now be entered upon, beginning with those of 

 the Lias. 



