265 



the stalk is the work of new polypes which have chanced to place 

 themselves there, how happens it that sometimes they form cylindri- 

 cal bodies, and at other times, at certain distances, spherical bodies ? 

 If the stem is constructed by a string of polypes, which fix themselves 

 beneath the base, how happens it, that only one, and not several rows 

 of polypes thus attach themselves ? and how does the first of these 

 polypes find, so exactly,the centre of the base? These are questions 

 which, as Mr. Walch justly observes, the supporters of this opinion 

 would have much difficulty in 'resolving. It does not appear to be 

 necessary to make any farther remarks on this opinion : that the en- 

 crinal compages is the labour and habitation of a single animal, is 

 sufficiently obvious. 



Respecting the animal, whi h should be considered as the recent 

 analogue of these fossils, numerous fruitless conjectures have been 

 formed, the more important of which it seems to be proper briefly to 

 notice, as nearly as I shall be able, in the order in which they have 

 been proposed. 



The separation of the rays of the Asterias Caput Medusa, Linn, into 

 numerous minute articulated branches, led several naturalists, among 

 whom may be mentioned Rosinus, Gesner, Bourguet, and Bertrand, 

 to believe that the encrinites and pentacrinites were fossil remains of 

 some animal of a nearly correspondent species. Lhwj'dd very strongly 

 maintained this opinion in a Dissertation (Prclcectio de Stellis Ma- 

 rinis) annexed to Linck's elegant work, De Stellis Marinis; but 

 Linck himself, having pursued the inquiry with requisite care and 

 zeal, informed Mr. Lesser, that he could not discover any sea-star 

 which could be considered as being analogous with the encrinite 

 described by Rosinus and Harenberg. 



The ascertaining of the important differences existing between 

 these fossil bodies and the Caput Medusae ; particularly in the mode 

 in which their ramifications are formed, and in the absence of the 

 trochital or asterial column ir* the Stelloe Marine, left these fossils 



VOL. II. M M 



