Mr. Webster on some new Varieties of Fossil Alcyonla. 381 



one end was pierced externally with several sma^l holes placed in 

 a regular order, which probably communicated with the tubuli I 

 have mentioned, and by the contraction and dilatation of which the 

 animal was enabled to draw in the water from which it extracted 

 its nourishment. 



Besides these extraordinary shapes which projected in relief, I 

 observed a variety of very regular white figures as if painted upon 

 the rock, being even with its surface, PI. 29, fig. 12. They con- 

 sisted of circles, of ellipses with various eccentricities, and of parallel 

 lines, both straight and curved. These I considered to be the different 

 sections of some cylindrical and perhaps tubular bodies inclosed in 

 the stone : the figures being always such as would be produced by. 

 the various sections of a hollow cylinder both straight and crooked. 

 The circles were generally from two inches to half an inch in 

 diameter, and were of a whitish yellow colour, the rest of the stone 

 being of a greenish yellow, or greenish brown. They were smooth 

 on the inside, but the outside was radiated, as if the original body 

 had been covered with spiculse. 



The substance which filled up the area of these figures was gene- 

 rally the same as that surrounding the outside, but sometimes it was 

 a little different. 



Although I had no doubt but that these singular figures owed 

 their origin to some organic body, yet 1 did not at first suspect that 

 they were in any way connected with the cylinders in relief that I 

 have just described. Fortunately however an illustrative specimen In 

 the limestone convinced me that both these appearances so different 

 from each other were derived from the same source. PI. 29, lig. 13, 

 represents the specimen to which I allude. In this on one side 

 may be seen a perfect example of the white radiated circles, and, 

 in consequence of some of the stone being broken away, the in- 



