502 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. V. 



deposits of the Oolite. The Belemnoteuthis (of the late Mr. 

 Charming Pearce),* an extinct cephalopodous mollusk allied 

 to the Belemnite, but in all probability generically distinct, 

 has been found with its arms entire, and the acetabula or 

 suckers, and spines attached, j- In the works now in pro- 

 gress for a branch railway through Trowbridge, the Oxford 

 clay underlying beds of Coral-rag, has been largely ex- 

 posed, and has yielded innumerable specimens of the usual 

 fossils, and some species of ammonites and other shells 

 not previously observed.^ The members of the upper 



* See London Palaeontological Journal, No. 2, PI. XV. X VI., for 

 beautiful figures of several remarkable specimens of these extinct 

 Cephalopoda. 



t In the Hunterian Museum are some splendid examples, presented 

 by the Marquess of Northampton and P. Pratt, Esq., which Prof. Owen 

 regards as the soft bodies of the Belemno-sepia j but the correctness of 

 this appropriation has lately been disputed. 



J My son, Mr. Reginald Neville Mantell, who is engaged on this 

 work under Mr. Brunei, has made a large collection of the fossils brought 

 to light by the cuttings and excavations in this locality. It comprises 

 very large and fine specimens of Ammonites Konigi, A. Calloviensis, 

 A . sublcevis, A . athleta, &c. ; beautiful examples of a boat-like ammonite 

 with a sharp keel (A. Ghamusseti of M. D'Orbigny, probably A.funi- 

 ferus of Prof. Phillips) ; a large depressed ammonite, with a flat back, 

 and a single row of nodular tubercles on the wreaths, which appears to 

 be an undescribed species : several kinds of Nautilus ; Belemnites with 

 the phragmocone and traces of the soft parts ; the cartilaginous base 

 of the Belemnoteuthis ; innumerable small shells of the genera Rostel- 

 laria, Terebra, Turritella, Trocthus, &c. ; Ostreae deltoideae ; Grypheae, 

 Terebratulae, &c. ; masses of coniferous wood and lignite ; bones of 

 Ichthyosauri, Plesiosauri, Teleosauri, &c. : and a few relics of fishes. 

 The fossils enumerated are but a small portion of the exuviae of the 

 oolitic ocean, which have been dug up in the comparatively small area 

 traversed by the railway ; and the profusion of shells, some of which 

 are inhabitants of deep waters, and others of shallow shores, here inter- 

 mingled with drift-wood, attests the effects of sub-marine currents by 

 which the remains of mollusks of such different habitats were accumu- 

 lated and spread over this area of the sea-bottom, with the spoils of the 

 land transported from a distance by streams and rivers. 



