148 Farther observations on the Pondicherry ^Fossils. [No. SO. 



oilier works on fossil Geology, I have been unable to identify 

 with certainty any one species. 



Baculites. — One of the most striking peculiarities of this 

 rock is the abundance of Baculites which it contains, some of 

 these are of considerable size. No complete specimen how- 

 ever has been found, — the largest which I have, is about 

 7 inches in length and two at the greatest breadth. Of this 

 5 inches is the outer chamber which contained the body of 

 the animal the shell when entire was probably 17 or 18 

 inches in length, and allowing 1 inch for an evident fracture 

 at the mouth, it will be seen, that the outer chamber consti- 

 tuted, at least one third of the whole shell — but Dr. Buck- 

 land ranks the Baculites among those shells of which the 

 external chamber was not sufficiently large to contain the 

 entire animal. This Fossil appears to be rare in Europe, but 

 many larger masses of stone at Seedrapet were almost com- 

 posed of Baculites — it sometimes consists of beautiful calca- 

 reous spar, with the foliated sutures most elegantly marked 

 on the surface, — in other specimens the outer shell is preserv- 

 ed, and the fractured ' end frequently displays the form of 

 the septa in a very perfect manner. 



Hamites. — A great variety of shells, evidently allied to 

 the European order of Hamite has been discovered. Some 

 specimens are merely hooked at the smaller extremity— others 

 are curved throughout their entire length— the ribbings or 

 undulations are also various, some being minute and others 

 bold and distant from each other— the sinuous edges of the 

 chamber are frequently visible, and the fractured end, as in 

 the Baculites, often well exemplifies the form of the septa. 



Belemmfe.' -The existence of this Fossil is still doubtful. 



Orthoceratite. — Three or four specimens of the species of 

 this shell were found apparently exactly resembling the 0. 



