collected by Captain Parry. 15 



examination, it will be found that those which contain no re- 

 mains manifestly belonging to the just mentioned organized 

 fossil bodies, are, nevertheless, entirely composed of their 

 detritus. This encrinitic mass, in single specimens, might 

 readily be mistaken for a friable variety of common granular 

 limestone, did not a comparison of a series of specimens prove 

 that appearance to be produced by the extreme comminution 

 of the substance of those fossil zoophytes, each particle of 

 which still exhibits planes of cleavage parallel to the primitive 

 rhombohedron. 



The joints of the stem and branches of the zoophyte which 

 appears to have thus largely contributed to the formation of this 

 mass, are mostly cylindrical ; their thickness is in an inverted 

 ratio with that of the column of which they form parts ; those 

 near the body being the largest and thinnest. Cylindrical 

 portions of the stem, formed by these thinner vertebrae, exhibit 

 on their surface hemispheric concavities, some of them large 

 enough to occupy from four to six of the thin joints or vertebrae, 

 the lines of separation of which are seen to traverse the cavities 

 in a horizontal direction. They are the sockets of articulation, 

 in which the branches of the stem were inserted. The casts 

 produced from these concavities in the surrounding mass, 

 might, when seen without their moulds, be easily mistaken for 

 distinct organic remains. There is little doubt that this zoo- 

 phyte is related to some of those encrinites of which parts of 

 the stem and branches so frequently occur in the transition 

 limestone of Gothland. It seems to me also probable that many 

 of the screw stones (Epitonium, L.) owe their origin to the 

 decomposition of the stems of species belonging to this genus. 

 Another species of a genus of zoophytes, peculiar to the 

 transition limestone, was found by Captain Parry, in Prince 

 Regent's Inlet, at the foot of a high hill. It is a fine Cateni- 

 pora, which appears to be quite distinct from the common 

 chain coral of Gothland, and other countries. Lamarck has 

 two species of this genus, namely, the common one, which is 

 (rather unaptly) called by him C. escharoides ; and another, 

 which he distinguishes by the name of C. axillaris, though it 



