444 F. A. Bather — The Search for Uintacrinus. 



the occurrence of Uintacrinus in Europe, our knowledge at the 

 beginning of 1896 remained as in 1876; not even from Reckling- 

 hausen, the original Westphalian locality, had another fragment 

 been obtained. It may therefore be a surprise to many to learn 

 that Uintacrinus is one of the commonest fossils of the Maraupitea 

 zone, not only in the Marlstone of Westphalia, but in the Chalk of 

 our own island, and probably at the same horizon in a good many 

 other countries. 



It was in March last that Mr. C. D. Sherborn brought to me from 

 Dr. A. W. Rowe, of Margate, a few scattered plates, supposed to 

 belong to a small Marsupites. I saw at once that they belonged 

 to Uintacrinus, though the species was uncertain ; and having 

 obtained two days' leave for the purpose, I set off for Margate, 

 on Dr. Rowe's invitation, to examine his collection and to search 

 the cliffs. Dr. Rowe has several fragments showing the plates 

 in juxtaposition, and these fully confirmed my opinion. More- 

 over, a search, with the help of Mr. Sherborn, Dr. Rowe, and 

 my wife, showed that along the cliffs east of Margate, next to 

 columnals of Bourgueticrinus, cup-plates and brachials of Uintacrinus 

 were the commonest fossils. We did not find it in the same places 

 as Marsupites and Echinocorys scutatus, although Dr. Rowe says that 

 he has found it in various localities west of Margate, associated 

 with Marsupites. In any case it occurs at the horizon of Actino- 

 camax verus. 



Another diligent collector, Mr. C Griffith, of Winchester College, 

 showed me, last July, plates from the railway-cutting west of 

 Grately station, near Andover, and from a pit one mile north-east 

 of Wlierwell railway station, which undoubtedly belonged to 

 Uintacrinus. Among the associated fossils were said to be Bourgueti- 

 crinus, Actinocamax verus, Micraster cor-auguinum, and Echinocorys. 



Clearly, then, Uintacrinus was common enough in England ; but 

 the fragments had, for the most part, been disdained by collectors, 

 or relegated to " Marsupites ? " Thus, in the Wetherell Collection 

 at the British Museum there are Uintacrinus plates from the north 

 of Kent, which had been labelled Marsupites, and which, when 

 rapidly sorting the collection some eight years ago, I had set aside 

 as belonging to an undetermined genus. 



These discoveries suggested that Uintacrinus could not be so rare 

 at Recklinghausen ; so when the holidays came, off we went thither, 

 visiting Bonn, Professor Schlueter, and the type-specimen on the way. 



It is not easy to collect fossils at Recklinghausen. The rock is 

 a glauconiferous sandstone, the grains of which are cemented by 

 carbonate of lime, and coloured a greenish-gray by carbonate of 

 iron. When freshly quarried it is a hard, massive stone ; but ex- 

 posure to the atmosphere rapidly dissolves the lime and decomposes 

 the iron carbonate, leaving eventually a loose sand, coloured reddish- 

 brown or yellow by iron peroxide. The rock is therefore useless 

 for building purposes and for road-metal, and is not quarried in, 

 a regular manner, although there are a few pits in some unfossiliferous 

 sand that seems to have arisen from the decomposition and perhaps 





