150 
Mr. Peale, jun. who exhibited, in the year 1802, in this metropolis, 
the astonishing skeleton of the Mammoth, found in the state of New 
York, brought with him a few petrifactions, of which, he observes, an 
infinite number is found in the neighbourhood of the morasses, from 
which the remains of that wonderful animal were obtained. Of these, 
he observes, they are in strange and unknown figures, and appear to 
be generally marine productions, since various species of coral and sea- 
urchins were likewise found among them.* 
Among the American fossils, which Mr. Peale shewed to me, the 
only one which appeared to be novel, and particularly interesting, was 
a piece of dark ferruginous limestone, on which were discoverable the 
remains of some body, which, although it in some respects resembled 
the cast of a single-starred madrepore, it essentially differed from it 
in other respects. About a month afterwards, looking in the shop of 
Mr. W. Humphries, of Rupert-street, over some specimens which had 
belonged to Mr. Strange’s collection, I fortunately met with a similar 
piece of limestone, with some very perfect remains of this same 
fossil. 
A careful examination of these shewed that they' belonged to a 
zoophyte, very like to that we have just examined. This fossil is formed 
of an indeterminate number of lamellae, perpendicularly disposed, 
with one edge towards the circumference, and the other in the centre 
of a semicircular plane. The lamellae rise, in some of these fossils^ 
in a sugar-loaf form ; whilst in others they rather expand at their 
base, and then suffer a gentle contraction in their diameter, previously 
to their proceeding to assume a conical form. Around every one 
of these conical bodies a cavity exists, part of which has necessarily 
been removed, by the fracture which has exposed them to view. 
Their form, therefore, cannot be ascertained ; their sides, however, 
may be concluded to be the inner sides of the parietes of a cavity 
* Account of the Skeleton of the Mammoth, &c. by R. Peale. P. 39. 
