to 



234 



To future discoveries must also be left the ascertaining of the ori- 

 ginal nature of the other fossils -which remain to be noticed in this 

 letter. The first of these, Plate XIII. Pig. 80, claims its admission, 

 merely from the floriform figure which it assumes, like the lily encri- 

 nite, from the closing of its arms. From the base of this body a 

 neck proceeds, which soon terminates in four arms or claws, in a con- 

 tracted state. In other bodies, apparently of a similar species, the 

 number of the claws varies from two- to even five. There exists no 

 mark in these bodies to determine whether, in their original state, they 

 were attached to vertebral columns, or were occasionally attached to 

 some foreign bodies. These specimens, as well as the former, are cal- 

 careous, and were also obtained from the mountains of Switzerland. 



This petrifaction is figured by Mons. Bourguet, who describes it 

 as the hexagonal flower of a coralloid (fleur hexagone d'un coralloide* . ) 

 An examination of the figure of this fossil, which is here given, will 

 sufficiently show that it partakes more of the nature of the encrinus 

 than of the coral ; a remark which has been already made by Mons. 

 Davila f and by Mr. Walch. The latter gentleman appears only to 

 have seen it figured by Bourguet, from which representation of it he 

 is unable to determine whether it is jointed or not ; and he observes 

 that it is an extremely rare fossil J. 



The ramifying fossil body, Fig. 81, has somewhat of the appear- 

 ance of the former fossil in an expanded state. Some of these fossils 

 have three, four, and even more branches, expanding in a similar 

 manner. Mons. Davila considers these as, vertebres noueuses diffe- 

 rentes des entroques et qui semblent appartenir aux rayons du sommet de 

 Tetoile ; and in another place he calls them, des petites articulations 

 branches des sommets. Mr. Walch acknowledges that he cannot with 

 certainty say to what substance they belong. When viewed with 



* TraitS des Purifications, Tab. XIII. Fig. 70, 71. 



f Catalogue systematique et raisonn, Tom. III. p. 194, No. 242. 



t Monumens des Catastrophes, &c. Tom. II. p. 104. 



