The silicified zoophytes of the West Indies, and those from Ava and the Sub-Himalayas, form beautiful subjects for the microscope; and chips, or sections, should be prepared in the manner recommended for fossil wood in the same state of mineralization. [Sidenote: LOCALITIES OF FOSSIL ZOOPHYTES.] British localities.--The gravels and sands of the Crag afford most favourable sites for obtaining tertiary zoophytes. In the London clay at Bracklesham Bay, a species of Astrea (_A. Websteri_) is often met with attached to flints and pebbles. In the Greensand of Atherfield, in the Isle of Wight, an elegant coral (_Astrea elegans_) is by no means rare. The Greensand gravel-pits, near Faringdon, in Berkshire, abound, as already mentioned, (_ante_, p. 228,) in many kinds of sponges, and other porifera; and the quarries of oolitic limestone in the vicinity of that town, yield the usual corals of the Jurassic formation in great profusion, I know of no locality richer in fossil zoophytes, than Faringdon.[262] [262] See Excursion, Part IV. of this work. The quarries of that division of the Oolite called Coral-rag (as in the north-west of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, &c.), afford the usual corals of the Oolite. The Oolite near Bath contains many species, and large masses of a minute coral (_Eunomia radiata_), are abundant. At Steeple Ashton, in Wiltshire, numerous oolitic corals may be obtained. The silicified _Astreæ_, of Tisbury, in the same county, deserve particular notice (_ante_, p. 263). Clifton, near Bristol, and Torquay and Babbicombe, on the Devonshire coast, are celebrated for their coralline marbles and pebbles; and many of the Derbyshire limestones are equally prolific in similar remains. The Devonian marbles are so largely employed for ornamental purposes,-- as brooches, tables, and side-boards,--that the figures produced by the sections of the enclosed corals must be familiar to the reader.[263] [263] Specimens of these fossil corals, either as objects of natural history, or as ornaments, may be obtained of Mr. Tennant, 149, Strand. Dudley, Wenlock, and Ludlow, are well known for the abundance and variety of Silurian polyparia. Other localities of British corals have been mentioned in the course of this review of fossil zoophytes. CHAPTER VIII. FOSSIL STELLERIDÆ; COMPRISING THE CRINOIDEA OR LILY-LIKE ANIMALS; AND THE ASTERIADÆ, OR STAR-FISHES.