1808-1822.] 
“PARAMUDRASr 
13 
connected its mineral history with that of many other 
spongiform bodies which are found in the chalk flints. 
“ Through the kindness,” he writes, “ of my learned friend 
Dr. Bruce, of Belfast, a very perfect specimen from Moira 
has been deposited in the Ashmolean Museum.” 
The origin of the word is, as has been said, uncertain. 
But the following story, told by the late Mr. Mant of 
Teddington, an Oxford pupil of Buckland’s, gives an 
explanation of the term which is at least creditable to 
the quick-witted peasantry of Ireland. 
On a hot, dusty day in Ireland, these “ paramudras,” as 
they should be correctly spelt, were first discovered as 
stepping-stones in a river. The Doctor apologised to his 
party that they must walk the rest of the journey, and that 
the stones must take up the carriage room. At the same 
time, taking a shilling out of his pocket, he asked a 
countryman what he called those stones. At first there 
was no response ; but when a second shilling appeared, 
Pat said, “ Paramudras.” When asked by his priest after¬ 
wards why he invented this word, “Faith,” he replied, “the 
gentleman would have some name, and I hadn’t one for 
him ; so para means ‘ against,’ and paramudra (the stepping 
stone), 4 against mud.’ ” 
It was on this Irish tour that, after a very long and wet 
day among the cliffs, the two geologists, Conybeare and 
Buckland, entered at dark a lone hut, occupied by an aged 
female. Tired, hungry, and covered with mud and dirt, 
upon flints, writes to the biographer (November 1893): “ Dr. Budkland 
was the first to call them sponges, and the voyage of the Challenger 
has confirmed the correctness of the opinion.” 
