426 



shows that Mr. Da Costa was mistaken ; the specimens, of which 

 he speaks, had, instead of tiie smooth, or the striated surface of 

 gramma, studs, or tuhercules, over the greatest part of its surface*. 

 But Dr. Woodward mentions another specimen, apparently of the 

 reed tribe, which was originally two feet long. 



The same circuit stance is observable in these fossils, as has been 

 mentioned when speaking of the vegetable remains in the iron 

 nodules. Very frequently, indeed, will the bituminizating process 

 have proceeded to the formation of the black bitumen, or jet, and 

 canel-coal ; such 1ms been the case in the specimen already referred 

 to, Plate III. Fig. 3, sevqral particles of black bituminous matter 

 being yet adherent, at the transverse sulcm or joint. 



The specimens of Dr. Woodward, referred by Mr. Da Costa to 

 the reed tribe, are undoubtedly similar fossils to that described 

 Plate III. Fig. 1, and which is indeed, in many respects, a most 

 surprising and interesting fossil, These fossils diifer much in their 

 length from the size of that which is here depicted, to those men- 

 tioned by Dr. Woodward : one of which was five feet, and the other 

 six feet and a half long-j~. They also differ very much in their thick- 

 ness, the most common size being less than that of a man's arm ; 

 but Mr. Martin observes, that they are sometimes met with of four 

 or five times that size. The substance of these fossils is either a 

 fine grit-stone, with small micaceous particles, or a stone in which 

 no grit appears ; but such a mixture of argillaceous and silicious 

 earth as approaches to a jasper -, the colour of both these kinds of 

 stones varying, with different shades, from the lightest, to almost the 

 darkest brown. The general figure of this fossil is that of a long, 

 irregular, and compressed cylinder; the surface of which is pretty 

 thickly beset, in quincunx order, with holes, from the bottom of 



* Catalogue of English Fossils, Part II. p. 104. q. 1. 

 t Ibid. Part I. p. 104. q. 1. and Part II. p. 59. h. 34. 



