CANADIAN ORGANIC REMAINS. 



On the Crinoideji; of the Lower Silurian Rocks of Canada. By 

 E. Billings, F.G.S. 



SECTION I. 

 HISTORY AND STRUCTURE OF THE CRINOIDE^. 



Among the various animal forms that lie entombed in the fossil- 

 iferous portion of the earth's crust, none have attracted a greater 

 amount of attention than the Lily Encrinites, or Crinoids, — that 

 group of organic remains to which the following memoir is devoted. 

 Their great abundance in many of the geological formations, the 

 remarkable shapes of the separated fragments of the skeleton, and 

 the peculiar flower-like form of the perfect specimens, must have in 

 all ages excited the curiosity of those whose tastes led them to take 

 an interest in the varied objects of nature ; yet it is only within the 

 last century and a half that the first correct ideas concerning their 

 characters began to dawn upon the human understanding. Dr. 

 Mantel informs us that the circular perforated joints of the column 

 occur in the tumuli of the ancient Britons, under such circum- 

 stances as to render it quite certain that our forefathers used them 

 for ornamental purposes, and perhaps as objects of veneration in 

 some way connected with the rites of the druidic religion. We 

 have no reason however to believe that they were at that time 

 supposed to be of animal origin. In more recent times they were 

 called, by the peasantry, " fairy-stones," " St. Cuthbert's beads," 

 "screw-stones," or "pulley-stones"; and in Grermany, ^' RosenTcranz- 

 steine,^'' rosary-beads;" '•' Hunnenlhraenen^^^ giant's tears; or '■^ Raeder- 

 steine,'^ wheel-stones ; — some of these names having been suggested 

 by their form and others originating in the superstitions of earlier 

 ages. 



It appears that the earliest publication in which has been found 

 any allusion to the Crinoideae is a book written, in 1558 by Agricola, 



