their shoulders wheresoever they could find any water. (Ach. Tat., lib. iv. p. 248.) Hence Prudentius against Symmach. (lib. ii. p. 242.) calls them slender barks and weak canoes.' "The Rabbies observe the same things on this passage of Isaiah, whose words R. Solomon Ben Melech has abridged into the following head: Goma has a very light wood; and our learned men observe that small boats are made of the paper reed, which are daubed over with pitch, that they may not admit water; and which, moreover, may be carried on the waters with a swift course, by reason of their lightness.' Tremellius and Junius notice skiffs constructed of papyrus, such as the Egyptians and the Ethiopians, near Catadupa, the cataracts, and dangerous fords, make use of; both because they were smaller, and also that they gave way to rough waves and rocks, with which the Nile abounds, and did not split and break in pieces like wood.'"* "In this chapter of Isaiah, if Egypt be the country spoken to," says Bishop Horsley, "vessels of bulrushes' might be understood of those light skiffs; but, if the country spoken to be distant from Egypt, those vessels may only be used as an apt image of quick-sailing boats of any material." But the learned and elegant Dr. Lowth adds: "this is one of the most obscure prophecies of Isaiah: the end and design of it, the people to whom it is addressed, the person who sends the messengers, and the nation to whom the messengers are sent, are all doubtful.” There is one more passage in the Old Testament where these vessels are alluded to, in the 26th verse of the 9th chap. of Job, "as the swift ships," or "ships of Ebeh," that is, according to Parkhurst, of the Egyptian papyrus, which seems here to be meant, the woody part of which was anciently used to build light vessels with. Schultens, also, very ingeniously *"Ite, leves nuntii; nempe fuerunt cymbæ papyrinæ admirandæ levitatis. Refert Achilles Tatius, majores non fuisse, quam ut singulos vectare possent. Si aliusmodi fuerint, limo præpeditæ, retinentur. Quare parva iis ac levia navigia, et exiguæ aquæ satis sunt: quod si quandoque aquam deesse contingat, sublatam humeris naviculam asportant, quousque aquam inveniant." (Ach. Tat., lib. iv. p. 248.) Inde "tenues cymbas fragilesque phaselos" appellat Prudentius contrà Symmach. (lib. ii. p. 242.) Eadem ad locum Esaiæ annotant Rabbini, quorum verba in summam contraxit R. Salomon Ben Melech. "Goma est lignum admodum leve. Et observant doctores nostri b. m. quod ex papyro parva navigia fiant, quæ pice oblinuntur, ne aquam admittant; quæ et jam ob levitatem celeri cursû in aquis feruntur." Tremellius et Junius: "naviculis è papyro contextis; qualibus Egyptii, Æthiopesque, propter Catadupa, catarhactas, et periculosa vada, utebantur, tum quod breviores essent, tum quod adversis fluctibus, scopulisque, quibus Nilus abundat, cederent, ac non dissilirent, aut frangerentur sicut lignum." (Celsi Hierobot., vol. ii. p. 147, 148.) suggests that Job compares the days of his prosperity, in three several degrees, with what we esteem the swiftest in the three elements: namely, with the quick despatches of the post by land; with the more expeditious motion of papyrine vessels by sea; and, which exceeds them both for swiftness, with the flight of the eagle in the air to his prey. (Chappelow.) Omitting the many and various other uses of the papyrus, as Theophrastus calls it, πρὸς πλεῖστα χρήσιμος, I will conclude these observations in the following words of Dr. Shaw : — "The vessels of bulrushes, or paper reeds, that are mentioned both in sacred and profane history, were no other than larger fabrics of the same kind with that of Moses, which, from the late introduction of plank and stronger materials, are now (for the most part) laid aside." (See Travels, p. 437.) Yours, &c. St. Peter's College, Cambridge, March 21. 1829. JOHN HOGG. ART. VI. Sir, On the Anatomy of the Ventriculites of Mantel. THESE fossil bodies were formerly considered to be the petrified remains of oranges, figs, nutmegs, and mushrooms. Volkman figured and described one as Núx moschàta frúctu rotúndo. (Silesia subterranea, tab. 22. fig. 6.) Scheuschzer adopted the same figure and description. These opinions possess some plausibility, if contemplating the external form only of these remains; and display some advance towards rational investigation, in comparison with the barbarous notion, of fossils formed "in the sportive moments of Nature;" or, by some latent plastic power of the earth;" or a fortuitous arrangement of materials. 66 As natural history became more an object of scientific enquiry, so became our views of Nature's works more enlarged; and men saw in these remains the components of a once animated body. About the middle of the last century, M. Guettard published, in the Mem. Acad. Scien. à Paris, a memoir entitled "Sur quelques Corps Fossiles peu connus;' in which he states that he had examined these bodies, and found them composed of reticulated coats, and tubes that passed from the peduncles into their bodies. He was inclined to think them more allied to Madrepores than Alcyònia. Lhwyd, in his Ichnographia, tab. 2. 176., has figured a Ventriculite somewhat resembling my figure (fig. 100.), and designated it an Astroite; he has reversed the natural position of the original. Parkinson in his great work on Oryctology, brought together all that had been published deserving of notice, relative to these bodies; and gave an elaborate account of them, accompanied with some investigations of his own; from which he was led to conclude they were not Alcyònia, nor Sponges, but that there required a new genus to be formed for their reception. Since that period he has published Outlines of Oryctology, in which really multum in parvo work * he has divided the fossils before known under the common term Alcyònia into four distinct genera, viz. Spongites, Syphonites, Mantellites +, and Alcyonites. But to Mantel we are indebted for the most scientific examination of, and rational conclusions on, the anatomy and physiology of these organic remains. His observations were first published in the eleventh Volume of the Trans. Linnean Society, and afterwards more fully in a very interesting and excellent work on the fossils of the South Downs. He has there shown they were the remains of a zoophyte, the general form of which was that "of a hollow inverted cone, having numerous ramose fibres proceeding from the base, by which it was attached to other bodies; and internally it possessed a surface covered with the apertures of numerous tubuli, in all probability the openings of absorbent vessels, by which its nutrition was effected; ... that the substance of the original must have been soft and elastic, susceptible of spontaneous expansion and contraction." He further observes, "whatever may have been the nature of its aliment, it seems probable that it underwent a certain degree of digestion and assimilation before it was fitted for its support, and that the nutritious particles were taken up by the openings so numerously distributed on the inner surface of the ventricular cavity." He was also disposed to believe that," like the Alcyonia and Actíniæ, they were permanently fixed to the rock upon which they grew. Mr. Mantel gave them the appropriate name, Ventriculite, and formed a genus for their reception, possessing the following characteristics: General Character Body inversely conical, concave, capable of contraction and expansion; original substance spon * Outlines of Oryctology, &c. by James Parkinson, 1822, from p. 50. to p. 62. + The Ventriculites of Mantel. I adopt Mr. Mantel's very appropriate name for this genus of zoophytes, in preference to the complimentary one given by Mr. Parkinson, principally for its conveying an idea of a very characteristic part of it; yet partly because I consider this fashion in the choice of names should be confined to the trivial or specific name. gious, gelatinous; external surface reticulated; internal surface covered with openings or perforated papillæ; base imperforate, prolonged into a stirps, and attached to other bodies." The following observations, offered as contributions to the anatomy of this zoophyte, are the results of repeated examinations of an extensive series of specimens, chiefly impregnated with, and enveloped in, flint. They are in various states of preservation; and, although from the fragile nature of the matrix their structure has been much deranged by fracture, still I find the silicified remains exhibit the original structure more distinctly than the calcareous; and from the former (except in one instance, fig. 100.) I have taken the accompanying sketches. These bodies are commonly found enveloped in flint, forming the nucleus of nodules of that substance, and assuming various forms, usually pyriform, but occasionally that of the mushroom; in the former case, they are readily distinguished by a spongoid circle bordering the smaller extremity, which is the margin of the mouth of the contracted original, and numerous perforations around the opposite extremity, exposing the terminations of the diverging radical processes; in the latter case, the spongoid structure appears on the margin of the summit, and the perforations at the bottom of its stalk. Mr. Mantel has given some faithful representations of these flints in tab. 10. of the work above referred to; and he has observed, that, "the margin is marked with semilunar indentations, the impressions of the fibres of the external integument; . . . . these markings are peculiar to the fossils of this genus, and attention to this circumstance will frequently enable the collector to distinguish the silicious specimens of Ventriculites from those of Spóngus Townséndi." From my dissections (if I may so term my investigations), I am led to describe the original zoophyte as constructed of various coats or layers, which may be separated into an internal, an external, and a series of concentric lamina, through which pass transversely, and afterwards longitudinally, a number of tubes destined to contain the materials for the support and growth of the body. I proceed to describe these parts separately as they have appeared to me. Inner Coat. This appears of a spongious texture, and lines throughout the ventricular cavity. It is probable that this coat is nothing more than the inner layer of the reticulated substance forming the chief mass of the animal, having gelatinous fibres irregularly interwoven, and forming a complete spongious texture. In the contracted and elongated form of the animal, this spongious surface only is exhibited: but, upon its full expansion, numerous openings appear in all parts of the surface, regularly arranged in a quincuncial order; and in silicious casts form the papillæ described by Mr. Mantel. I have been so fortunate as to procure some specimens exhibiting the inner surface uninjured, see figs. 93. and 94. Fig. 93. is a magnified view of a fragment of a contracted specimen: a shows the inner surface, not covered with the openings or mouths of the tubes; b shows that those tubes are formed in that portion, appearing on its outer surface, and probably becoming exposed on its inner surface when the structure becomes unfolded by expansion or distention. The figures are magnified views of one fragment; a the inner surface, and b the surface broken from the substance of the body. Fig. 94. exhibits the fossil in about a half degree of expansion; a portion of the mineralised animal is seen at the |