36 



POPULAR CONCHOLOGY. 



with the muscular mantle, fins, ink-bag, funnel, eyes, and 

 tentacles with their horny hooks. 



BELEMNITES. Lister. — Shell straight, consisting of two 

 parts ; external, a sheath having a conical cavity at the 

 larger end, and containing an inner cone, which is cham- 

 bered and perforated. Animal, from the remains dis- 

 covered, supposed to have resembled the Sepia in general 

 characters : the shell or pen being internal, the body long, 

 the fins two, the arms eight, covered with suckers; the 

 ink-bag lodged in the horny expansion of the shell : the 

 latter has been found nearly a foot in length. (Buckland.) 

 — About 100 species, fossil. 



These curious fossils vary in size and form ; some are 

 small, delicate, transparent, like amber ; others are opaque, 

 and from ten to twelve inches in length; 

 some are cylindrical, or broad and flat, or 

 even fusiform. They are very common, 

 having been met with in all ages and coun- 

 tries, and giving rise to much speculation as 

 to their real character. It is but recently 

 that their true origin has been discovered, 

 and their place in creation ascertained. In 

 former times they have been described as 

 petrified fingers or arrows, devil's fingers, 

 spectre candles, fairy bolts, thunder stones, 

 stalactites, or the teeth of some animal. The 

 chambered portion is called the phragmo- 

 cone, and is composed of cells formed by 

 concentric divisions of a pearly substance, 

 pierced by a siphuncle. This part is en- 

 veloped in a sheath of calcareous matter, 

 passing upwards into a horny receptacle, 

 which contains the ink-bag, &c. 



