OF CREATION. 49 



seen, rising or leaning over on their short and slen- 

 der stems, the simple forms of the crinoids or stone- 

 flowers, more beautiful, perhaps, and more picturesque 

 than the sea-anemones of our own coast, even when 

 these latter are seen in all their beauty, and with 

 their tendrils and fibres widely expanded and bril- 

 liantly coloured. The crinoids, wanting indeed the 

 colour, but of far more elegant form, would some of 

 them be seen spreading out their arms and fingers in 

 search of prey, while others closed entirely their cup- 

 like envelope, giving a variety and life to the sea 

 bottom, in spite of the cold, hard, stony frame- work 

 of the animal, scarcely concealed by a living coat of 

 leathery integument. 



Besides these, and sometimes attached to them, 

 every hard fragment of rock, and every hard surface 

 at the bottom of the sea, at all moderate depths, 

 would doubtless be overgrown with some one or other 

 of the numerous family of Brachiopoda (Trilobites, 

 Sec.), which we know to have been abundant. A 

 few of the Conchifera (Pectens, &c.), with their bi- 

 valve shells, might also be seen flitting about in the 

 water, moving by jerks produced by the sudden shut- 

 ting of their valves, but an infinite number and va- 

 riety of other animals, swimming with much greater 

 freedom and elegance, and of far greater size, then 

 crowded the ocean, rising and sinking at pleasure, 

 and with great facility. Some of these were of form- 

 idable dimensions, exhibiting a strange spear-like tail 

 projecting downwards, and terminating above in a 

 more or less powerful and sack-like body, moving 

 with infinite rapidity in every direction ; while 

 others, short and almost globular, were perhaps less 



