338 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. IV. 



yielded many remains of this family ; the strata at Ather- 

 field, especially, abound in several species of Lobster.* 



In the limestone of St. Peter's Mountain, the claws of a 

 small species of Crab are frequently discovered (Lign. 67), 

 but without any other vestiges of the animal. M. Faujas St. 

 Fond, and Latreille, have very ingeniously explained this 



Lign. 67.— Claws of a fossil hermit-crab; from Maestricht. 

 (Pagurus Faujasii.) 



fact, by showing that these remains belonged to a parasitical 

 species of JPagur'us, which, like the common hermit-crab of 

 our seas, had the body covered by a delicate membrane, 

 the claws alone having a shelly case ; hence the latter might 

 be found in a fossil state, while of the other parts of the 

 crustacean no traces would remain. 



31. Fishes of the chalk. — The fossil fishes of the 

 white chalk were known only by the teeth, which abound 



* Some of the layers of the greensand at Atherfield contain so many 

 remains of two or three species of small Astaci, as to be termed the 

 '• Lobster beds" See my Geology of the Isle of Wight, pp. 225, 232 : 

 and the vignette of the title-page of that volume. 



