4 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
The first result of this method was to locate along the bluffs of Beech River 
in Decatur County an exposure of shales and shaly limestone some 6o feet in 
thickness, containing the beds from the erosion of which the most productive of 
the glades were derived. Preliminary tests showed that some layers of this 
contained crinoids in place in good preservation, and thereupon a force was 
organized for extensive quarrying, with proper blasting equipment, and the 
work of uncovering the fossiliferous layers was carried on for the remainder of 
the summer under Mr. Pate’s energetic direction. It was resumed the follow- 
ing summer, during which by persistent quarrying and blasting the favorable 
exposures were thoroughly excavated, and the accessible crinoid-bearing strata 
exhausted. These were chiefly in the upper shales, now known as the Eucalypto- 
crinus zone. Some smaller exposures in the vicinity produced the name-giving 
genera of the Troostocriniis and Coccocrinns zones. Several years later Fred- 
erick Braun was sent for a final inspection of the Tennessee river area, especially 
the weathered quarry dumps, which yielded some excellent additional specimens. 
The occurrence of the crinoids as disclosed by these quarrying operations 
was rather irregular, and much material was moved that proved to be barren. 
But in the aggregate the work of the two seasons was eminently successful, 
yielding a total of ninety-five species of crinoids, of which fift 3 ^-nine were new, 
distributed among thirty-three genera, besides a blastoid and a few cystids. The 
crinoids from the shales were usually silicified, and for the most part in excellent 
preservation. The matrix was readily removed by preparation, so that many 
of them when ready for study had the crown freely exposed on one or all sides. 
In some cases considerable colonies were found ; for example, the hitherto rare 
‘'Coccocrinns” hacca, of which about a thousand calices were recovered from 
a bed of shaly limestone of limited area. Taking the collection as a whole, it may 
be said without exaggeration that more finely preserved crinoids were secured by 
Mr. Pate’s two summers’ campaign than had been found by all the collectors in 
the Tennessee Silurian during the sixty years preceding. 
Many rare forms, hitherto known only from isolated or fragmentary speci- 
mens, occurred in numbers sufficient for a thorough elucidation of their charac- 
ters, and an even greater number were entirely new. This was conspicuously 
true for the Flexibilia, the Calceocrinidae and several genera of Camerata, of 
which there were forms and specimens such as had never been seen before. 
Details of these, however, will be better shown by the figures upon the plates. 
Upon the broader question of the parallelism of the crinoidal fauna with 
that of the north European Silurian, the collection furnishes a wealth 8f infor- 
mation confirmatory of the existence of a migrational connection between the 
two areas. In several rare and specialized genera, as well as in some of abundant 
occurrence, species are found which except for difference in matrix can scarcely 
be distinguished from the English or Swedish forms. The general facies of the 
fauna proclaims a close relationship, and this impression is reinforced by the 
similarity of many of the other fossils. 
