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of pentacrinite, I anxiously examined Mr. Harford's fossil, with the 

 hope of discovering its inferior extremity, but without success : even 

 in this very large mass, nothing of this kind was discoverable. 



Small slabs of the remains of this animal are found in various parts 

 of England, particularly in Dorsetshire, where, in several parts of the 

 cliff on the sea- shore, the remains of the animal are found attached 

 to the rocks in a pyritified state, in very considerable quantities ; but 

 it very rarely happens, that any pieces much larger than the two 

 hands, and at the same time in tolerable preservation, can be sepa- 

 rated from the rocks. 



But the vertebrae of different pentacrinites are much more fre- 

 quently found in a detached than in an united state. They are often 

 found in this state in different parts of Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, 

 Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Somersetshire, Warwickshire, West- 

 moreland, Cumberland, Yorkshire, and Lancashire. They are most 

 commonly found in the bottom and sides of streamlets, and in the 

 gravel of the rivers and sea, having been washed from the banks. 

 Dr. Woodward observes, that they are found plentifully in two banks 

 at Whitton, in Lincolnshire, where the people call them Castles and 

 Apostles. They are also frequently found in elevated situations : thus 

 they very much abound on Breedon Hill, in Worcestershire, and on 

 Lassington Hill, near Gloucester, where they have obtained the name 

 of Lassington Stones. Both these and trochital vertebrae, from hav- 

 ing been found in abundance in particular streams, have, from time 

 immemorial, given particular names to such streamlets : thus a brook 

 at Strickland Head, in Westmoreland, has hence obtained the name 

 of Fairy-stone Brook. 



A curious inquiry, perhaps worthy of the heraldic antiquary, is, 

 how far the origin of the heraldic symbol, the mullet, has depended on 

 the frequent discovery of these pentagonal vertebrae ; since this sym- 



