240 
its surface, a very important and, I think, a very decisive circum- 
stance in the structure of this body was discovered. In the superior 
part of the processes, of the exterior edges of which the abovemen- 
tioned ridges are formed, numerous transverse separations exist, at 
the distances of about the thirty-second part of an inch, which 
appear to be articulations similar to those which occur between the 
ossiculae of the lingers of the lily encrinite, and must have given to 
these parts of this animal a capacity for similar motions with those 
which were performed by the lingers of the lily encrinus. Considering 
these parts, then, for a moment, as the lingers, let us trace back, as 
far as we can, and we find, as has been already noticed, that two 
of these fingers proceed from each of the bodies, in the inferior part 
of the fossil ; which, therefore, bear, in this respect, a close resem- 
blance to the arms of the lily encrinite. Besides this, we also discover, 
in those parts of these bodies which form the inferior surface of the 
fossil, several transverse fissures which may have been the joints by 
which the extension and contraction of these bodies might have been 
admitted. Every thing, indeed, in the form and structure of this 
body serves to shew that, like the lily encrinus, it was capable of 
being alternately expanded and contracted for the obtaining and the 
securing of its prey. Whether the digital processes were beset, on 
their internal part, with articulated tentacula, this specimen will not 
allow us to discover. 
On various parts of the surrounding matrix are oval impressions, 
which evidently appear to have derived their figures from the oval 
vertebrae with which the trunk of the animal had been formed. This 
conjecture receives considerable confirmation from the impression, 
which is faithfully represented as existing on the matrix by the side of 
the above described body : this impression having very much the ap- 
pearance of being produced by the oval trunk of an encrinus, the 
vertebrae of which must, however, have materially differed from the oval 
vertebr®, represented Plate XIII. Fig. 32, 40, 41. 
