56 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



possible of the skin is left untouched. The method 



of drying is to fit the pocket thus obtained, over a 



wooden cylinder, about twelve inches in length, and 



of the requisite diameter, and proceeding in the usual 



way. The hind feet may be cut off close to the skin, 



as they leave no appreciable hole. 



So far I have given an outline which may be 



useful to some of the readers of Science-Gossip. I 



do not lay claim to much originality in method, but I 



have tried to put myself in the place of a beginner, 



in describing the ins and outs of the simple process 



which puzzled myself at first, and to give some idea 



of the way in which I have learnt to overcome the 



difficulties I have met with. If I have succeeded, it 



may be that a rare specimen may be saved from loss, 



and I am content. Who knows whether, if some 



Dutchman had only known how to make up a skin, 



there might not be a stuffed specimen yet existing of 



the Dodo ! 



Charles D. Whistler. 



A STARFISH BED IN THE RH/ETIC 

 FORMATION. 



By W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S. 



THERE is I believe in the Rhcetic Formation, a 

 layer which deserves the name of a " star- 

 fish bed." The earliest allusion to the occurrence 

 of these interesting fossils in this deposit, is in 

 Mr. Chas. Moore's excellent paper " On the Zones 

 of the Lower Lias, and the Avicula contorta Zone," 

 " Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society," 

 vol. xvii. p. 483 (1861), where he writes, " Ophiura, 

 a single joint found in the clay band at Vallis, 

 Somersetshire, appears to have represented this or 

 an allied genus in the Rhaetic age." 



In February 1873, I found a perfect starfish in the 

 Rhsetic black shales of the Spinney Hills, near 

 Leicester, and further search detected a thin sandy 

 layer about half an inch thick, literally made of the 

 scattered joints of such an organism. Other examples 

 which I have since found, show a disc of one-eighth 

 of an inch in diameter, with an extreme breadth 

 across the arms of about an inch. My specimens 

 were of such a fragile nature that they would not 

 bear carriage, but they were seen by the Rev. P. B. 

 Brodie, F.G.S. , who alluded to them in a paper on 

 the " Lower Lias and Rhcetics of the Midlands," 

 "Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society," 

 vol. xxx. p. 746, 1874. This Spinney Hill section is 

 minutely described in my paper " On the Occurrence 

 of the Kinetic Bed.-, in Leicestershire." Q. J. G. S. 

 vol. xxxii. p. 212. 



About this time, Dr. Thos. Wright, of Chelten- 

 ham, the well-known palaeontologist, described some 

 specimens of a starfish from the Rha-tic beds at 

 Hildesheim, in Hanover, " Zeitschrift der Deutschen 

 geol. Gesellschaft," under the name of Ophiolepis 



Damesii ; from these the British specimens present 

 no perceptible difference. 



In 1875, Mr. G. Embrey, of Gloucester, obtained 

 the same species from the Rhcetic black shales at 

 Garden Cliff, Westbury (specimens may be seen in 

 the Jermyn Street Museum), and the Rev. P. B. 

 Brodie has also found it near Stratford-on-Avon, and 

 Mr. H. J. Elsee near Rugby ; in Science-Gossip 

 for December 1878, I see Mr. T. Stock mentions 

 that he found a " starfish " (doubtless O. Damesii) at 



Fig. 39. — Fossil Starfish {Ophiolepis Damesii). Lower side. 



Fig. 40. — Fossil Starfish (Oj>hiolcJ>is Damesii). Upper side. 



Aust Cliff. In the same month I paid a visit under 

 the guidance of Mr. Storrie, of Cardiff, to the famous 

 Rhatic section which stretches along the coast from 

 Penarth to Lavernock. Besides other good fossils, we 

 got a fine slab (now in the Cardiff Museum) covered 

 with specimens of the three characteristic Rhcetic 

 shells : Cassianclla contorta, Protoca?-dinm Philip- 

 planum, and Pecten Valonicnsis ; between the mol- 

 luscan remains, I was delighted to recognise several 

 specimens of Ophiolepis Damesii. 



