ENCRINITIC MARBLE. 171 



every inch of it inscribed with hieroglyphics far more 

 readable than those of Egypt, far more beautiful than 

 sculpture or mosaic could have made them. 



The history it speaks of stretches back through 

 countless ages, and relates to scenes that passed away 

 before antiquity began : its every fragment is a 

 monument whereon we read I AM. 



The polished surface of the marble shows that its 

 whole substance is composed of animal remains, the 

 jointed stems of creatures that in shape somewhat 

 resembled plants and flowers, and hence are named 

 " stone lilies," "lily-stones," and " lily-encrinites." 

 It is indeed difficult, from a smooth section of such 

 marble, to make out precisely what have been the 

 forms of these elaborate structures still more difficult 

 by any industry to extricate them from the stony 

 matrix in which they lie imbedded ; so that we might 

 have still remained in ignorance as to their real con- 

 formation had not an unexpected agent come to the 

 assistance of the naturalist, and performed this labour 

 for him 



" Quid magis est saxo durum quid inollius unda ? 

 Dura tamen molli saxa cavautur aqua." 



Water is soft, and marble hard; but yet 

 We see soft water through hard marble eat. 



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and the surface of the weather-beaten cliffs, dissected, 

 as it were, by the continual peltings of the pitiless 

 storm, display, in the shape of " screw-stones," count- 

 less myriads of these exhumed relics. 



We may judge, says Dr. Buckland, of the extent to 

 which these Encrinites multiplied among the first 



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