404 



Dr. Buck-land's Geology and Mineralogy : 



[April 



In a communication to the Geological Society, February 1829, 1 an- 

 nounced that these fossil ink-bags had bee?i discovered in the Lias at 

 Lyme Regis, in connexion with horny bodies, resembling the pen of a 

 recent Loligo. „ 



These fossil pens are without any trace of nacre, and are composed 

 of a thin, laminated, semi-transparent substance, resembling horn. 

 Their state of preservation is such as to admit of a minute comparison 

 of their internal structure with that of the pen of the recent Loligo; 

 and lead^ to the same result which we have collected from the exami- 

 nation of so many other examples of fossil organic remains ; namely, 

 that although fossil species usually differ from their living represen- 

 tatives, still the same priniciples of construction have prevailed 

 through every cognate genus, and often also through the entire fami- 

 lies under which these genera are comprehended. 



The petrified remains of fossil Loligo, therefore, add another link to 

 the chain of argument which we are pursuing, and aid us in connecting 

 successive systems of creation which have followed each other upon 

 our Planet, as parts of one grand and uniform Design. Thus the union 

 of a bag of ink with an organ resembling a pen in the recent Loligo, 

 is a peculiar, and striking associ? ion of contrivances, affording com- 

 pensation for the deficiency of an external shell, to an animal much 

 exposed to destruction from its fellow-tenants of the deep; we find a 

 similar association of the same organs in the petrified remains of ex- 

 tinct species of the same family, that are preserved in the ancient marl 

 and limestone strata of the Lias. Cuvier drew his figures of the re- 

 cent Sepia with ink extracted from its own body. I have drawings of 

 the remains of extinct species prepared also with their own ink ; with 

 this fossil ink I might record the fact, and explain the causes of its 

 wonderful preservation. I might register the proofs of instantaneous 

 death detected in these ink-bags, for they contain the fluid which the 

 living sepia emits in the moment of alarm; and might detail further 

 evidence of their immediate burial, in the retention of the forms 

 of these distended membranes ; since they would speedily have 

 decayed, and have spilt their ink, had they been exposed but a 

 few hours to decomposition in the water. The animals must there- 

 fore have died suddenly, and been quickly buried in the sediment that 

 formed the strata, in which their petrified ink and ink-bags are thus 

 preserved. The preservation also of so fragile a substance as the pen 

 of a Loligo, retaining traces even of its minutest fibres of growth, is not 



with sepia of excellent quality, and begged to be info x-med by what colour-man it was 

 prepared. The common sepia used in drawing is from the ink-bag of an oriental species 

 of cuttle-fish. The ink of the cuttle-fishes, in its natural state, is said to be soluble only 

 in water, through which it diffuses itself instantaneously ; being thus remarkably adapted 

 to its peculiar service in the only fluid wherein it is naturally employed. 



