Mr. Webster on some new Varieties of Fossil Alcyonia. 38S 



tinctly seen. The number Is Indeed truly astonishing, almost 

 every block of stone contains many, and some of the rocks appear 

 entirely filled with them. 



Whether those having a thick cortical part, and the smooth cy- 

 linders with a spiculated cortex, are different parts of the same 

 species, representing in one case the stems and in the other the 

 branches, I must leave to be decided by future observers ; at present 

 I am not in possession of any facts that would connect them to- 

 gether. They both agree in the great length of the stems, and In 

 the general forms of the heads attached to them ; but I never found 

 the smooth cylinders of larger diameter than one Inch, although I 

 frequently observed the other four or five inches in diameter. The 

 cortex of the former, v/hen it was at all discernible, was always ex- 

 tremely thin, but that of the latter was nearly equal to the internal 

 part ; and I never found the sections of the last sort In the green 

 sand like rings. 



With respect to the smooth cylindrical fossils, whose sections 

 formed white radiated circles, I cannot help thinking that the 

 originals were tubular bodies, or that the animal matter which- 

 originally filled them \n2A gelatinous, or consisted of some sub- 

 stance not sufHciently dense to undergo the process of silicifi- 

 cation ; In consequence of which the fossils were at first hollow,, 

 and admitted the matter which enveloped them also to fill the in- 

 side ; since I constantly found the material within the radiated ring,, 

 whether sandstone or limestone, the same or very nearly so with 

 that which surrounded it. 



Although by giving full scope to the imagination, one might 

 easily be led astray in contemplating a phenomenon so curious, yet 

 I have no doubt but that these appearances will warrant the con- 

 clusion, that there must have existed here an immense bed of these; 

 wonderful animals, of the most gigantic size, growing like asub- 



