298 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
of a Belemnitella, figured in p. 317, of Maiitell's * Excursions round the Isle of 
Wiglit,' was obtained by my friend and brother collector, Matthew Hale. The 
external shell of tlie Belenniitella is always wanting, but the cast of it remains in 
the shape of a circular cavity, having the peak of the alveolus or phi-agmacone at 
the bottom. Those fossils are extremely rare, and when found, great care should 
be taken not to niake 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 coiu'se to pursue is 
to break off 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 which 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 Rhynchonellne are also found in as perfect a state. These, 
with the dift'erent 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 which occurs on both sides of the Point, about sixty paces 
from the i isherman's Cottage, towards Bonchurch, interspersed with large blocks 
of gTey chalk containing few fossils. There is an outlier of the lowermost portion 
of the white chalk, containing a few small flints at intervals, with an al)undance 
of a small species of Inoceramus, associated with Mynchonella plicatiUs 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 an'ive at White Stone Point, near Horseshoe Bay, wliich 
is almost wholly composed of chalk-rubble, in blocks from the size of a small 
cottage to pieces of six inches square, comprising rejireseutatives of every layer 
of both the lower and middle chalk (but none of the upper) ; the larger blocks 
consist chiefly of the lower or gi-ey chalk, many of which contain good specimens 
of Siphonia with other fossils, such as Ammonites, Turrellites, Scaphites, &c., 
much distorted by pressure. Fiu-ther on we come to Horseshoe Bay, an indenta- 
tion of the shore caused l)y a large mass of Gault intervening between two head- 
lands of chalk ruuis. The easternmost headland is capped with drift, in which 
some workmen, a short time back, discovered a portion of tlie 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 slices, of moss, hence they are often 
termed ' moss-agates.' Many of these from this neighbourhood exliibit splendid 
colours, caused by the infiltration of iron, which contrast mth the bluish tinge 
of the chalcedony between the feiTuginous bands. When they exhibit this 
appearance, they are called 'landscape-agates,' and are much sought after for 
brooch-stones by visitors, being prefeired for their beauty to the far-famed 
Brighton-pebliles, 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. 
" Ventriculites, several varieties. 
" Cliona. — The slieUs of the larger Inocerami were subject to the ravages of a 
peculiar parasitical sponge, which destroyed the intermediate substance, leaving 
