THE GARDEN OF STONE LILIES. 109 



are these new and anomalous forms, which move their sul- 

 len and sinister visages among the other tribes with the 

 mien of conscious and insolent superiority? Predaceous 

 creatures, they despoil at a meal the most beautiful bed of 

 encrinites, while the trilobite, alarmed, shoots with a quick 

 stroke of his tail under cover of some coral crag. These 

 are Orthoceratites. They were so numerous and powerful, 

 being, withal, the monarchs of the period, that we must 

 pause to look into their family connections. 



