I40 OUR COMMON BRITISH FOSSILS. 



geologists that ever lived. Both the latter fossils 

 belong to the same group as our modern "five- 

 fingers," and they have been beautifully preserved 

 (as any one may see, who pays a visit to the Kendal 

 Museum), in spite of the skin being only thickened 

 with calcareous spicules, and not plated. Two species 

 of fossil star-fishes have been found rather plentifully 

 in the Cambrian rocks at Welshpool, Meifod, and 

 Corwen. The Silurian beds in a quarry at Rumney, 

 about two miles from Cardiff*, have yielded Palceaster. 

 Dr. Ricketts has found Protaster Salteri on the east 

 side of Bala lake ; and the same species has also been 

 met with near Llangower. Mr. W. J. Harrison be- 

 lieves there is a Rhaetic stratum which deserves the 

 name of a "star-fish bed." This bed occurs in the 

 Spinney Hills, near Leicester, as a thin, sandy layer 

 about half an inch in thickness, completely made up of 

 the joints of star-fish. The Rhaetic black shales at 

 Garden Cliff, Westbury, Gloucestershire, have also 

 yielded star-fish ; and Mr. T. Stock has found remains 

 of them in the same strata at Aust Cliff, on the 

 Severn. Mr. Harrison further shows that remains 

 of fossil star-fishes (probably Ophiolepis Daniesii) 

 occur in the famous richly fossiliferous Rhaetic section 

 which stretches along the coast from Penarth to 

 Lavernock. Remains of star-fish from this place 

 may be seen in Cardiff Museum. Next we come to 

 the Lias strata for star-fishes, and we have already 

 seen that one bed is especially rich in them. The 



