189 



vening retained substance, the fingers are not completely closed ; but 

 their points, as if to secure the seized prey, or overcome the opposing 

 resistance, appear to have been forcibly contracted downwards and 

 inwards. 



The knowledge of the several parts of the world in which this spe- 

 cies of encrinus has existed in a mineralized state, is only to be at- 

 tained by the discovery of the skeleton of the body part, the ver- 

 tebras themselves not possessing characters always sufficiently dis- 

 tinguishing to determine whether they belonged to this species, or not. 

 There is no part of the world in which this species has been hitherto 

 known decidedly to exist, but in some of the states of Germany. 

 Lachmund first discovered a part of the encrinus, with its appro- 

 priate vertebrae, in the neighbourhood of Hildesheim, in. Lower 

 Saxony*. Rosinus also discovered the specimens,, the nature of which 

 he so successfully investigated, on the summits of the mountains 

 in the neighbourhood of Obernscheden and Azzenhusen, not far from 

 the town of Gemenden, in Lower Saxony f. Bitter mentions a moun- 

 tain named Rakenberg, near Goslar J, in the territory of Brunswick, 

 in Lower Saxony, where this fossil is found. The six-rayed encrinus, 

 described by Bruckmann, is also enumerated by him among the sub- 

 terranean treasures of this part of Saxony . Beuth describes two 

 encrinites of this species which were dug from a mountain at Sewer- 

 ven,in Juliers, in Westphalia [|. 



The southern part of Lower Saxony, and the adjoining part of 

 Westphalia, appear to be almost the only parts where this fossil has 



* Oryctographiae Hildesheimensis Praefamin, p. 3. 



f- Di Lithozois ac Lythophytis, p. 2. 



| Oryctographiae Goslariensis, p. 20. 



Thesauri Subterrariei Ducatus Brunsvigii, p. 65. 



\\ Juliae et Montium Subterranea, &c. Francisco Beuth, p. 84. 



