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of nourishment and existence to an animal which was intended to 
dwell, like a plant, on one particular spot. 
The fossil Plate XIV. Fig. 1, formerly in the collection of the late 
Mr. Jacob Forster is beautifully illustrative of the internal structure of 
this animal. The lower part of the closed encrinus, with a part of 
its vertebral column attached, is here imbedded in a matrix, formed 
of detached vertebrae of this animal, mingled with the mineralized 
remains of other marine animals. In the upper part of this speci- 
men, the accidental removal of the terminating bones of the fingers 
has afforded a clear and distinct view of the tentacula in the natu-, 
ral situation which they hold, whilst the superior extremities of the 
animal are in a state of contraction. I am indebted to the correct 
pencil of Mrs. Sheffield, of the Polygon, Somers' Town, for the exact 
delineation of this specimen, as well as for the elegant drawing of the 
fossil which appears in the frontispiece. 
From this animal having been generally found in a contracted state, 
it has been supposed that this state resulted from its thus con- 
tracting itself together during its dying struggles. It is, indeed, most 
probable that, on the sensation of the least injury, the animal would im- 
mediately firmly contract itself, as appears to have been the case with 
the animal in the specimen here figured. But in another specimen, 
instead of this close firm contraction, the arms and fingers appear to 
have merely collapsed together ; the terminations of the fingers lay- 
ing out so extended as to give much more the appearance of priva- 
tion of power, than of that of energetic contraction. In another speci- 
men, appearances very different from these last mentioned offer them- 
selves to our observation. The body, arms, &c. are not only in the 
finest preservation possible, but have, at the same time, that sharp- 
ness and fulness which cannot fail to give an idea of the high degree 
of health and power which the animal possessed at the moment pre- 
vious to its death. In this specimen, as if prevented by some inter- 
