204 ORGANIC REMAINS. 



the centre. There is also around the margin of the base, a row of 

 tubercles, or short spines, resembling the tuberculated rings in the 

 fossils last described. Like these, it is from the oolite, the only two 

 which we have heard of, being found together near Kirkby Moorside. 

 It is also brownish without, and sparry within ; but it is of a more 

 glassy spar than these fossils, being translucent. Whether it is 

 really a petrified nut, or an animal substance belonging to the zoo- 

 phyte family, we presume not to determine. It is obviously not an 

 echinite. A splinter having broken off from near the apex, shews 

 some faint appearance of a nucleus, or kernel, in the interior : but 

 we may easily be deceived by the strong resemblance which some 

 zoophytes bear to fruits. The first Figure delineated in Scheuchzer's 

 Herbarium Diluviammi, which he calls an ear of corn, appears from 

 its joints and form to be a species of encrinite. 



While speaking of uncertain fossils, we may mtroduce to the 

 notice of our readers a substance, which we have not hitherto seen 

 described, and which, if a petrifaction at all, seems more connected 

 with the zoophytes than with any other tribe. It consists of myriads 

 of parallel fibres resembling hairs, with numerous minute open pores, 

 forming interstices between them. The substance occurs in the 

 oolite, at Maiton, Silphoue, and other places, in flat irregular masses, 

 of a brown or blackish colour ; varying in thickness, from a line, or 

 little more, to an inch, or an inch and a half; and often extending 

 several inches in length and breadth. Each mass is usually thick 

 towards the middle, and thin at the edges ; but we find the mass in 

 some places leaving off abruptly, with a thick edge. The fibres are 

 nearly perpendicular to the plane of the mass ; so that, where it is 

 thin they are very short; and where it is thick, they are longer. 

 Where it is bent, they are also bent ; and where it forms a kind of 

 arch, they diverge around the arch, like a fan. Some parts of the 

 surface of the mass, in a few specimens, are smooth, in which case 



