9 
in the lower beds of the Ironshot Oolite, as the specimen 
now figured is from near Yeovil, and contains vestiges 
of ferruginous grains. I am indebted to the kind atten- 
tion of Dr. W. E. Leach for preserving it from the 
gothic hands of the mason, who is often as destructive 
of the essential characters of fossils, as some dealers 
still continue to be of the natural forms of recent shells, 
and who rob them without mercy of venerable coats that 
had resisted with various success the combined efforts of 
numerous sea-born enemies, whose ravages even, leave 
marks more worthy of contemplation than the formal 
beauty betrayed by the file or polishing brush. 
Fig. 2 shews a cast of the margin ; it is from a part 
of an outer whorl found at Shotover Hill, near Oxford. 
A section, shewing the chambers filled partially with 
crystallized Carbonate of Lyme, is given at tab. 12 of 
British Mineralogy. It often extends to 18 inches or 
more in diameter, and when cut thin and viewed i*y 
transmitted light, offers a specious excuse for the 
unscientific mason. 
