REFERENCES TO THE CHROMO-PLATES.
In the [frontispiece] is represented the polished section of a pebble which the author picked up on the beach at Bonchurch, in the Isle of Wight. This is an unusually large and perfect specimen, the body of the Choanite lying nearly central. The pebble contains one or two blotches of native iron. The “cuticle” is uninjured.
[PLATE I.]
Fig. 1. This is a slice from a lump of “conglomerate” found on the beach at Sidmouth. The white parts are sections of the nodules of quartz, the red and yellow are jasper.
Fig. 2. A section of an “Alcyonite” from the bay of Sandown. It formed part of a large pebble.
[PLATE II.]
Fig. 1. This is, I have no doubt, a fossil “Actinia.” I have often looked on the exact living resemblance of it at the fish-house in the “Zoological Gardens,” where it is fond of clinging like a limpet against the vertical pane of glass in an aquarium.—(Found in Sandown Bay.)
Fig. 2. I suppose this half of a pebble to represent the internal structure of some creature which dwelt in a bivalve shell.—(Sandown Bay.)
[PLATE III.]
Fig. 1. This sponge, a faultless specimen of the kind, is from the Brighton beach. It was the first pebble I ever picked up there.
Fig. 2. The body and arms of this Choanite are in white Agate; the remainder of the stone is a dark moss, formed chiefly of Manganese, and surrounded by a yellow flinty rim.—(Brighton Beach.)
[PLATE IV.]
Fig. 1. A Nondescript: but, probably, the creature was of the vermicular kind.—(Brighton Beach.)
Fig. 2. A handsome Choanite, uncut, but polished over, so as to show the points of some of the feelers.—(Found at Eastbourne.)
[PLATE V.]
Fig. 1. An “Eyed” Jasper, from the beach near Shoreham. It contains yellow “oxide of iron,” and some dark green flint.
Fig. 2. A “Myriapod.” This fossil is a very handsome one, and I have another, closely resembling it, from the same locality, in Sandown Bay. The dark, reddish spot, is of the nature of Molluskite.
[PLATE VI.]
Fig. 1. A Spindle, or Fusiform Choanite, when the pebble was entire. I do not possess a more perfect specimen: the Chalcedony is remarkably fine, and the “oxide” of a rich tint.—(Sandown Bay.)
Fig. 2. Pyriform Choanite, uncut. Here, again, the creature lies over the surface; and, as I conceive, from the position which it occupies, was swimming for its life.—(Found at Rottingdean.)
[PLATE VII.]
Fig. 1. An “Asterid.” This is different from all the other creatures in these fossils. Its position in the heart of a solid limestone pebble is singular.—(Beach at Hove.)
Fig. 2.—“Terebratula.” The entire pebble was formed inside of a “Pecten”-shell, and inside the pebble lies this formation, which was a living organism connected with the hinge.—(Beach near Luccombe.)