The surface exposed by the division of the pebble, is an oblique vertical section of the petrified zoophyte. It shows a central canal filled with bluish-grey flint (_Plate II, c_), in a mass traversed by tubes or channels, which possess considerable beauty and variety of colour from an impregnation of iron.[L] A transverse section (see _Lign. 14._ fig. 1) would, of course, have a central spot, with rays proceeding thence to the circumference, as in the oblique fracture (_Plate I, c_).[M] [L] Specimens of this kind form beautiful objects when polished, and are mounted as brooches by the lapidaries of Brighton, Bognor, and the Isle of Wight, who term them petrified sea-animal flowers. Mr. G. Fowlstone (4, Victoria Arcade) of Ryde, has many splendid examples, and also agates and jaspers, the genuine productions of the Island. [M] Note VII. _Isle of Wight Pebbles._ [Sidenote: CHOANITES KONIGI.] The form of the original zoophyte when living, must have been that of an inverted cone or funnel, (hence the scientific name _Choanite_ or funnel-like,) with a long cylindrical digestive cavity in the centre, from which tubes ramified through every part of the mass. It was attached to a rock, stone, or shell, by root-like fibres which spread out from its base; and its soft body was strengthened, as is the case in many sponges and animals of a similar nature, by numerous siliceous spines or spicula, which are often found in the flint and chalk (see _Lign. 10._ fig. 5).[N] [N] Note VIII. _Zoophytes of the Chalk._ [Illustration: Lign. 14:--Choanites _Konigi_: from the Chalk. Fig. 1.--A transverse section. 2.--Upper portion of the body. 3.--Vertical section, like the pebble, Pl. II. p. 41. 4.--A flint, enclosing a Choanite, which is exposed on the upper surface. 5.--Various forms of siliceous spines of Choanites and other analogous bodies; magnified slightly. (See '_Medals of Creation_,' p. 264.) ] The _Choanites_ must have swarmed in the Chalk ocean, for in some of the strata almost every flint exhibits traces of these zoophytes.[O] [O] The shingle at Brighton and Bognor in Sussex, and in various localities in the Isle of Wight, abounds in specimens more or less perfect. I would inform my fair readers who may visit these places, and be inclined to purchase a brooch, in illustration of these "_Thoughts on a Pebble_," that by far the greater number of the so-called Brighton and Isle of Wight moss-agates, jaspers, &c., sold by the lapidaries and jewellers, are of German or Scotch origin; and that the _false-emeralds_, and _aquamarines_, are water-worn fragments of common green glass bottles! [Sidenote: CORALS IN CHALK.] [Illustration: Lign. 15:--Branch of Coral on the Pebble. Fig. 1.--A portion magnified. 2.--A fragment represented as when alive. _a, a_, Two polypes collapsed. _b, b_, Two polypes with their tentacula extended. ]