114 



BRITISH BELEMNITES. 



On a group of Belemnites, including B. canaliculatus, Schlotheim (in part) ; 

 B. SULCATVS, Miller (in part) ; B. Altboefensis, Blainville B. absolutus, 

 Fischer; B. Beaumontianvs, D'Orbignt. 



The canaliciilated Belemnites above referred to are frequent in the Oxford Clay, and 

 specially toward the lower part of it, as it occurs in England. They are found in the 

 vicinity of Oxford, associated with Ammonites Dnncani, in the parallel of the Kelloway 

 Rock, or nearly so, for that rock is hardly traceable in this quarter. In the corresponding 

 clay of Weymouth, Belemnites are found of the same general character, while at St, Neot's 

 specimens occur which cannot in the least particular be distinguished from Oxford 

 specimens. 



Miller, while examining the Oxford Collection, certainly referred the channelled 

 Belemnite of the neighbourhood to B. stdcatus ; but a frequent apphcation of this name is 

 to a species of the Lower Oolite, such as B. apiciconus. We find in Schlotheim 

 B. canaliculatus corresponding to B. sulcatus of Miller, and, like it, including forms from the 

 Inferior Oolite and the Oxford Clay, Blainville rightly separates them, and assigns to his 

 B. Altdorfensis one of Miller's figures (pi. viii, fig. 5, ' Geol. Trans.,' 2nd series, vol. ii), and a 

 part of B. canaliculatus of Schlotheim. Quenstedt employs the general title of B. canali- 

 culatus for all these forms, and includes in it the Stonesfield fossils referred to B. Bessinus 

 by Morris and Lycett. 



Belenmites having the same general character occur in the Oolitic series of Russia, with 

 Ammonites of the Oxford Clay ; and similar forms have come to my hand from the 

 Himalaya. 



Among all these fossils there is so much of resemblance that in the sense of the term 

 species, as it was employed by the earlier naturalists who thought with LinnfEus, they 

 might be classified under one title, such as B. canaliculatus, the earliest on record, as Quen- 

 stedt does. But this title is equally claimed for the grooved Belemnites of the Bath Oolite 

 series, which contain several very distinguishable and characteristic forms. 



B. Altdorfensis of Blainville is supposed by this author to be identical with B. cana- 

 liculatus of Schlotheim and B. sulcatus of Miller, and is quoted from the ferruginous Oolite 

 of Curey, near Caen. 



D'Orbigny disposes of the perplexity of this nomenclature by instituting a new 

 species, B. Beaumontianus, which he refers to the Lower Oxford Clay of Vaches-Noires. 

 A fossil, corresponding to his figure, occurs at Loch Staffin in the Isle of Skye, according 

 to Prof. E. Eorbes. No other locality is given by Morris, 



Upon the whole I am disposed to preserve the name Avhich Miller certainly imposed 

 on the long-grooved fossils from the Oxford Clay ; the more so as it will be seen that 

 hardly any examples fit so exactly with the figure of B. Beaumontianus given by D'Orbigny 

 as to render that a good general type of a variable species. 



