109 
the basis of the fossil, depicted Plate X. Fig. 5. Its general form and 
tuberculated surface, with the risings and depressions passing from one 
end to the other, give it an appearance so much resembling a cucum- 
ber, that, in the minds of those who were not a little conversant in 
these inquiries, suspicions might arise, that it owed its form to that 
fruit. 
By rubbing a part of it at one of its terminations with a sand-stone, I 
ascertained that it was hollow, and that the substance of the fossil was 
about a third of an inch in thickness. On examining this fossil, 
by attrition on different substances, and in various other ways, it 
was discovered to be composed of a loose, spongy, calcareous matter, 
combined with a very small portion of silicious sand, and incapable 
of acquiring a polish. On several parts of its ashen grey-coloured 
tuberculated surface, patches of a thin pellicle, of a reddish yellow 
cast, were discoverable ; and the magnifying lens shewed that a de-^ 
pression, and even an opening, were observable in the centre of some 
of the tubercles. At one end, which in the plate I have made the 
superior, no imperfection appears but at the other end a surface is 
observable, from which, it seems, that a part has been broken off , 
and on that surface, the lens demonstrates strong marks of organi- 
zation. 
From the texture of the fossil itself, and from the appearances at 
its inferior termination, the cellular-, spongy, organized original body 
may be inferred ; and from the apparent fracture at the same termi- 
nation, the existence of a pedicle at that part may be supposed. 
Additional reasons for supposing it to have been organized, in a mannei 
similar to alcyonia, may be deduced from the openings, observable 
in some of the tubercular risings, and in the thin cortical part, the 
remains of which are so distinctly to be seen. 
But the circumstance which serves most of all to corroborate this 
opinion respecting its origin is, that Count de Marsilli describes a 
recent alcyonium, which agrees in all its essential characters with this 
