188 



of nourishment and existence to an animal which was intended to 

 dwell like a plant on one particular spot. 



The fossil, Plate XIV. Fig. 1, formerly in the collection of the late 

 Mr. Jacob Forster, is beautifully illustrative of the internal structure of 

 this animal. The lower part of the closed encrinus, with a part of 

 its vertebral column attached, is here imbedded in a matrix, formed 

 of detached vertebra? of this animal, mingled with the mineralized 

 remains of other marine animals. In the upper part of this speci- 

 men, the accidental removal of the terminating bones of the fingers, 

 has afforded a clear and distinct view of the tcntacula in the natu- 

 ral situation which they hold, whilst the superior extremities of the 

 animal are in a state of contraction. I am indebted to the correct 

 pencil of Mrs. Sheffield, of the Polygon, Somers' Town, for the exact 

 delineation of this specimen, as well as for the elegant drawing of the 

 fossil which appears in the frontispiece. 



From this animal having been generally found in a contracted state, 

 it has been supposed that this state, resulted from its thus con- 

 tracting itself together during its dying struggles. It is, indeed, most 

 probable, thaton the sensation of the least injury, theanimal would im- 

 mediately firmly contract itself, as appears to have been the case with 

 the animal in the specimen here figured. But in another specimen, 

 instead of this close firm contraction, the arms and fingers appear to 

 have merely collapsed together; the terminations of the fingers lay- 

 ing out so extended as to give much more the appearance of priva- 

 tion of power, than of that of energetic contraction. In another speci- 

 men, appearances very different from these last mentioned offer them- 

 selves to our observation. The body, arms, &c. are not only in the 

 finest preservation possible, but have, at the same time, that sharp- 

 ness and fullness, which cannot fail to give an idea of the high degree 

 of health and power which the animal possessed at the moment pre- 

 vious to its death. In this specimen, as if prevented by some inter- 



