298 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



of a Belemnitella, figured in p. 317, of Mantell's ' Excursions round the Isle of 

 Wight,' was obtained by my friend and brother collector, Matthew Hale. The 

 external shell of the Belemnitella is always Avanting, but the cast of it remains in 

 the shape of a circular cavity, having the peak of the alveolus or phragmacone at 

 the bottom. Those fossils are extremely rare, and when found, great care should 

 be taken not to make too free use of the hammer, or the delicate point of the fossil 

 is sure to fly off. I have always found that the best and safest course to pursue is 

 to break of!" the flint, in a large lump, that contains the specimen, and submit it 

 to the lapidary's wheel, which is certain to be attended with success in the 

 hands of such a skilful workman as my friend Mr. John Billings, of Ventnor, 

 who developed for Mr. Beckles the figured specimen to wliich I have alluded. ' 



" Spines of the Cidaris also occur in the same state, with this difference, that 

 they only leave the impressions of their fluted sides in a little round hole in the 

 flint. The Oalerites ovata is also found in a beautiful state of preservation, with 

 its rows of slender spines ranged in triple lines across the cast of the shell, as fine 

 and small as the points of a needle, and extending from the oval to the anal 

 aperture. Casts of Rhynchonellaa are also found in as perfect a state. These, 

 with the different species of Echinus that occur in the upper chalk, are amongst 

 some of the most prominent that are met with. In addition to the white flint fossils 

 may be added those of the gi^ey and black flints, which are imbedded in a stiff red 

 clay, a large mass of whicli occurs on both sides of the Point, about sixty paces 

 from the Fisherman's Cottage, towards Bonchurch, interspersed with large blocks 

 of grey chalk containing ftw fossils. There is an outlier of the lowermost portion 

 of the white chalk, containing a few small flints at intervals, with an abundance 

 of a small species of Inoceramus, associated with Rhynchonella plicaiilis and 

 fragments of comminuted shells, Bryozoa, sponges, spines of Cidarites, &c. Blocks 

 of the white chalk, intermingled with masses of the upper gi-eensand are scattered 

 along the shore until we arrive at White Stone Point, near Horseshoe Bay, which 

 is almost wholly composed of chalk-rubble, in blocks from the size of a small 

 cottage to pieces of six inches square, comprising representatives of every layer 

 of both the lower and middle chalk (but none of the upper) ; the larger blocks 

 consist chiefly of the lower or grey chalk, many of which contain good specimens 

 of Siphonia with other fossils, such as Ammonites, Turrellites, Scaphites, &c., 

 much distorted by pressure. Further on we come to Horseshoe Bay, an indenta- 

 tion of the shore caused by a large mass of Gault intervening between two head- 

 lands of chalk ruins. The easternmost headland is capped with drift, in which 

 some workmen, a short time back, discovered a portion of the skull of an elephant, 

 with a few teeth of some other animal, and the jaw-bone of a young whale. The 

 flints are scattered also along the shore from thence to Sandown, and a little 

 farther to the eastward we come upon the lower green-sand, at Monk's Bay, just 

 below the old church of Bonchurch, built by the monks of Lyra, in the year 755, 

 and in which bay they landed after having bravely crossed the channel from 

 Normandy, and preached to the islanders the truth which St. Boniface had 

 attested with his blood ; it is a curious circumstance that those monks should land 

 and choose one of the loveliest spots in creation for their future residence. 



" Fossils from the Flints. 



" Choanites, three or four varieties.— The mass of the Choanite often presents the 

 appearance, when cut by the lapidary into sliges, of moss, hence they are often 

 termed ' moss-agates.' Many of these from this neighbourhood exhibit splendid 

 colours, caused by the infiltration of iron, which contrast with the bluish tinge 

 of the chalcedony between the ferruginous bands. When they exhibit this 

 appearance, they are called 'landscape-agates,' and are much sought after for 

 brooch-stones by visitors, being preferred for their beauty to the far-famed 

 Brighton-pebbles, in which the oxide of iron predominates so much as to render 

 the darker portions black, instead of red, blue, and yellow, like those of this 

 neighbourhood. 



" Vcn/ricuJites, several varieties. 



" Cliona. — The siiclls of the larger Inocerami were subject to the ravages of a 

 peculiar parasitical sponge, which destroyed the intermediate substance, leaving 



