F. A. Bather — The Search for Uintacrinus. 445 



partial erosion of the bard rock. Fortunately the soil requires 

 occasional replenishing with lime, and this is supplied by scattering 

 over the fields lumps of the fresh rock, such as may be obtainable 

 from any casual openings. Such lumps and openings are the 

 collector's only hope. 



I reserve a statement of the various localities searched by us, and 

 the fossils there found, for a future detailed description of the 

 European specimens of Uintacrinus. The main result is that at 

 Recklinghausen, as at Margate, Uintacrinus is, next to Bourgueticriaus, 

 the commonest fossil. It occurs, associated with Actinocamax verus 

 and A. quadratics ; but, as at Margate, we found no Marsupites. The 

 greater number of the remains consist of scattered cup-plates and 

 brachials, differing only in colour from those so common in the 

 Margate Chalk. This was all that I expected to find, so that I was 

 all the more delighted when my wife discovered at the junction of 

 the humus and the sand, in a small roadside cutting east of the 

 railway station, a complete cup of Uintacrinus, less perfect than 

 the type-specimen as regards the arms, but more perfect in its 

 base and the important interbrachial areas. The specimen was 

 extracted with great care, delicately laid in a round tin box, and 

 packed in with fine dry sand. Thus it travelled safely until its 

 loose substance could be hardened with water-glass. 



The object of this note is to draw the attention of those who 

 collect Upper Cretaceous fossils to this abundant species, which has 

 been so strangely overlooked. If they have not already in their 

 collections, they will doubtless find in the Lower Senonian of their 

 neighbourhood, flattish, thin plates, usually of pentagonal or tetra- 

 gonal outline, and marked on the inner surface with wide grooves 

 radiating from the centre to the sides, not to the angles. Associated 

 with these they will find brachials, often characterized by a diagonal 

 fulcral ridge, as figured in the paper above referred to. I shall have 

 pleasure in sending a copy of that paper to anyone who will look 

 out for Uintacrinus. and will lend me the specimens he finds. 



Possibly with this assistance many important questions may be 

 solved. We want to know, first, if there are really two species of 

 Uintacrinus, as has been supposed ; and if both are represented in 

 Europe ; or if the European specimens belong to the American 

 species : this can only be decided by the comparison of many 

 specimens. Secondly, we have to determine the geological and 

 geographical range of Uintacrinus in Europe : for this, details of 

 its occurrence, and especially of the associated fossils, are desired. 

 Does it really belong to the Marsupites zone ? Thirdly, when this 

 knowledge is obtained, we may be able to throw light on the 

 correlation of the Cretaceous rocks in America and Europe, and 

 to distinguish further between synchronism and homotaxis. Other 

 questions there are of morphological and bionomic interest; but 

 1 hope enough has already been said to kindle in the breasts of 

 geologists some enthusiasm for Uintacrinus. 



