n8 



OUR COMMON BRITISH FOSSILS. 



slate quarries visible on the hillside, as we walk 

 towards Val Crucis Abbey, there is an abundance of 

 these fossil Encrinites ; and although all the structure 

 of the fossils has been completely altered since they 

 were alive, and they are now really in the condition 

 of natural casts, nobody will deny their beauty. I 

 have seen slabs of six feet in length completely 



Fig. 95. Actinocrinus^ triacontadac* 

 tylus, a Carboniferous limestone genus. 



Fig. 96. Head of Taxocrinus 

 (Devonian). 



crowded with these Encrinites, roots, stems, and 

 heads, just as they grew, looking for all the world like 

 a fossil tulip-bed ! 



Again, what geological student who has made a 

 pilgrimage through the Peak district of Derbyshire 

 has not had his attention called to the " Encrinital 

 limestone/' as everybody calls the rock, which is so 

 completely filled, or rather made up of Encrinite stems, 



