265 
the stalk is the work of new polypes which have chanced to place 
themselves there, how happens it that sometimes they form cylindri- 
cal bodies, and at other times, at certain distances, spherical bodies? 
If the stem is constructed by a string of polypes, which fix themselves 
beneath the base, how happens it, that only one, and not several rows 
of polypes thus attach themselves? and how does the first of these 
polypes find, so exactly, the centre of the base ? These are questions 
which, as Mr. Walch justly observes, the supporters of this opinion 
would have much difficulty in resolving. It does not appear to be 
necessary to make any farther remarks on this opinion : that the encrinal 
compages is the labour and habitation of a single animal, is sufficiently 
obvious. 
Respecting the animal, which should be considered as the recent 
analogue of these fossils, numerous fruitless conjectures have been 
formed, the more important of which it seems to be proper briefly to 
notice, as nearly as I shall be able, in the order in which they have been 
proposed. 
The separation of the rays of the Asterias Caput Medusa, Linn, into 
numerous minute articulated branches, led several naturalists, among 
whom may be mentioned Rosinus, Gesner, Bourguet, and Bertrand, 
to believe that the encrinites and pentacrinites were fossil remains of 
some animal of a nearly correspondent species. Lhwydd very strongly 
maintained this opinion in a Dissertation ( Prelactio de Stellis Marinis ) 
annexed to Linck’s elegant work, De Stellis Marmis ; but Linck himself, 
having pursued the inquiry with requisite care and zeal, informed 
Mr. Lesser that he could not discover any sea-star which could be 
considered as being analogous with the encrinite described by Rosinus 
and Harenberg. 
The ascertaining of the important differences existing between 
these fossil bodies and the Caput Medusse ; particularly in the mode 
in which their ramifications are formed, and in the absence of the 
trochital or asterial column in the Stellse Marinse, left these fossils 
VOL. II. 
M M 
