16 



where we have the outline of a creature, of which the lower part 

 consists of the familiar Belemnite, the middle of the chambered par- 

 titions, and the upper of a body surmounted by a crown of radiating 

 arms, clothed on the one side with sharp and effective 

 hooks ; or in the drawing (fig. 8), where one of the 

 Belemnitic tribe seems as it were to come before lis 

 bodily. 



What were the Belemnite's ways, how it lived, also 

 seems revealed to us,viz., that it was gregarious, that it 

 was fond of company, avoided rocks and sported on 

 muddy shores, was wont to swim backwards, ever ready 

 to secure its prey, and always inclined to flee from any 

 impending danger. Called into existence in the Lias 

 Age, suddenly swimming in the Lias seas in per- 

 fect shoals, it held its ground for ages ; continually, 

 from time to time, putting on new shapes, until in the 

 soft bottom of the Chalk ocean, it assumed a fresh 

 generic form, that of Belemnitella, 1 and passed away 

 extinct, never to be found again in any sea or ocean. 



In addition to the Belemnites, few are the other 

 fossils which pertain to our first great group, the 

 outwardly unclothed, such as they are, as the Belemnoteuthis, (fig. 8,) 

 or the Beloteuthis, with a spear-headed bone, or the Belosepia, 

 with a tooth-formed bone, are related to the Cuttle, that is to say, 

 they have an internal support ; when alive they possessed an ink- 

 bag, and were covered by bare skin. These for the most part 

 occur in the deposits overlying the Lias formation, and per- 

 taining to the Jurassic system of Geologists. 



Henceforth when new continents rose up from the recesses of the 

 deep, other strange fish entered on their labours, and swept up and 

 cleaned anew the new-born ocean-floors. 



In the second of the two great divisions, that of the " head-footed " 

 creatures enclosed within a shell, the best known and the most com- 



1 Belemnitella differs from Belemnites in the presence of a small slit at the side of 

 the conical hollow, " alveolar cavity ;" it is well marked in fig. 6. In the Belemnite 

 there is only a furrow. 



Fig. 8. 



Belemnoteuthis 

 antiquus, Oxford 

 Clay, Christian 

 Malford, Wilts.; 

 the figure reduced 

 one-seventh from 

 a specimen in the 

 British Museum. 

 The hooks seen 

 on the left-hand 

 6ide of figure are 

 those belonging to 

 the arms, and are 

 reduced to half 

 the natural size. 



