es, that had been thrown out, as they were struck, by the workman's
shovel, we immediately commenced, and, like an inquisitor of old,
knocked our victims on the head, that they might reveal their secrets;
or, like a Roman haruspex, examined their interior,--not, however, to
obtain a knowledge of the future, but only to take a peep into the past.
1. Here, then, we take up, not a regular Lias lime nodule, but what
appears to have formed part of one; and the first blow has laid open
part of a whorl of an Ammonite, which, when complete, must have measured
three or four inches in diameter, and it is perfectly assimilated to the
calcareous matrix. 2. Here is a mass of indurated clay; and a gentle
blow has exposed part of two Ammonites, smaller than the former, but
their shells are white and powdery like chalk. 3. Another fragment is
laid open; and there, quite unmistakably, lie the umbo and greater
portion of the _Plagiostoma concentricum_. 4. Another fragment of a
granular gritty structure presents a considerable portion of the
interior of one of the shells of a Pecten, but whether the attached
fragment is part of one of its ears, or of the other valve turned
backward, is not so easily determined. 5. Here is a piece of Belemnite
in limestone, and the fracture in the fossil presents the usual
glistening planes of cleavage. 6. Next we take up a piece of distinctly
laminated Lias, with Ammonites as thick as they can lie on the pages of
this black book of natural history. 7. Once more we strike, and we have
the cast and part of the shell of another bivalve; but the valves have
been jerked off each other, and have suffered a severe compound
fracture; nevertheless we can have little hesitation in pronouncing it a
species of _unio_. 8. Here is another piece of limestone, with its small
fragment of another shell, of very delicate texture, with finely marked
traverse striae. We are unwilling to decide on such slight evidence, but
feel inclined to refer it to some species of Plagiostoma. 9. Here is a
piece of pyrites, not quite so large as the first, and so vegetable-like
in its markings, that it might be mistaken for part of a branch of a
tree. This is also characteristic of the Lias; for when the shales are
deeply impregnated with bitumen and pyrites, they undergo a slow
combustion when heaped up with faggots and set on fire; and in the
cliffs of the Yorkshire coast, after rainy weather, they sometimes
spontaneously ignite, and contin