Bra.EMNITKS. 
371 
SECTION VI [. 
Behmnite. 
shall conclude oiir account of chambered 
shells with a brief notice of Belemnites. This 
extensive family occurs only in a fossil state, and 
Its range is included within that series of rocks 
^hich in our section are called Secondary.* 
These singular bodies are connected with the 
other families of fossil chambered shells we have 
already considered ; but differ from them in 
having their chambers inclosed within a cone- 
shaped fibrous sheath, the form of which re- 
sembles the point of an arrow, and has given 
ei'igin to the name they bear, 
M. de Blainville, in his valuable memoir on 
J^elemnites, ( 1827 ) has given a list of ninety- 
one authors, from Theophrastus downwards, who 
have written on this subject. The most intelli- 
gent among them agree in supposing these 
bodies to have been formed by Cephalopods 
^hied to the modern Sepia. Voltz, Zeiten, Ras- 
and Count Munster, have subsequently 
published important memoirs upon the same 
Subject. The principal English notices on Be- 
lumnites are those of Miller, Geol. Trans. N. S. 
be lowest stratum in which Belemnites are said to liave 
fo\nid is the Muschel-kalk, and the highest the upper 
"alk of Maestricht. 
