118 



PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



Fig. 44 



out into the broadest and fullest development of these 

 singular animals, without exhibiting any marks of 

 interruption, and as if there had been little or no 

 disturbing action. Thus we have a link connecting 

 the chain of beings, and uniting two conditions so 

 dissimilar that whole families of fishes and inver- 

 tebrated animals were unable to endure them; and 

 this link moreover is one of great 

 importance, and, as it might have 

 seemed to us, the one least likely 

 to be selected for this purpose. 

 It may ultimately be found to 

 have reference to the permanent 

 elevation above the water of some 

 portion of the land, while the 

 sea bottom was undergoing great 

 change of level. 



The seas of the new red sand- 

 stone period were not favourable 

 to the development of the coral 

 animal, but numerous radiated 

 animals existed, of which the most 

 interesting is that known to fossil- 

 collectors by the name of the lily 

 encrinite (fig. 44). 



This animal was one of a sin- 

 gular group already described (see 

 p. 34), inclosed within a stony 

 STONE LILY. habitation, and planted upon a 

 (Encrinites moniliformis.) stony but moveable column nearly 

 cylindrical, and attached at its 

 base to the solid rock. From the pouch, which is 

 divided into five parts, as many pairs of smaller 



