beyond the possibility of doubt, by the recent discovery of numerous specimens in the Lias of Lyme Regis,[1] in which the ink-bags are preserved in a fossil state, still distended, as when they formed parts of the organization of living bodies, and retaining the same juxta-position to a horny pen, which the ink-bag of the existing Loligo bears to the pen within the body of that animal. (Pl. 28, Fig. 1.)
Having before us the fact of the preservation of this fossil ink, we find a ready explanation of it, in the indestructible nature; of the carbon of which it was chiefly composed. Cuvier describes the ink of the recent Cuttle Fish, as being a dense fluid of the consistence of pap, "bouillie," suspended in the cells of a thin net-work that pervades the interior of the ink-bag; it very much resembles common printers' ink. A substance of this nature would readily be transferred to a fossil state, without much diminution of its bulk.[2]
Pl. 28, Fig. 5, represents an ink-bag of a recent Cuttle Fish, in which the ink is preserved in a dessicated state, being not much diminished from its original volume. Its form is similar to that of many fossil ink-bags (Pl. 29, Figs. 3—10,) and the indurated ink within it differs only from the
- ↑ We owe this discovery to the industry and skill of Miss Mary Anning, to whom the scientific world is largely indebted, for having brought to light so many interesting remains of fossil Reptiles from the Lias at Lyme Regis.
- ↑ So completely are the character and qualities of the ink retained in its fossil state, that when, in 1826, I submitted a portion of it to my friend Sir Francis Chantrey, requesting him to try its power as a pigment, and he had prepared a drawing with a triturated portion of this fossil substance; the drawing was shown to a celebrated painter, without any information as to its origin, and he immediately pronounced it to be tinted with sepia of excellent quality, and begged to be informed by what colour man it was prepared. The common sepia used in drawing is from the ink-bag of an oriental species of cuttle-fish. The ink of the cuttlefishes, in its natural state, is said to be soluble only in water, through which it diffuses itself instantaneously; being thus remarkably adapted to its peculiar service in the only fluid wherein it is naturally employed.
