Effect of polypes on mineral strata. 445 
same system appears to have prevailed from 
the first commencement of life in the most an- 
Eient seas, throughout that long series of ages 
^hose duration is attested by the varied succes- 
^•on of animal and vegetable exuviae, which are 
^tiried in the strata of the earth. In all these 
strata the calcareous habitations of such minute 
^•^d apparently unimportant creatures as Polypes, 
^lave formed large and permanent additions to 
*^^6 Solid materials of the globe, and afford a stri- 
hing example of the influence of animal life upon 
mineral condition of the earth.* 
If there be one thing more surprising than an- 
other in the investigation of natural phenomena, 
It is perhaps the infinite extent and vast import- 
^Ece of things apparently little and insignificant. 
Among the Corals of the Transition Series are many existing 
and Mr. de la Beche has justly remarked (Manual of 
p^'^logy, p. 454) that wherever there is an accumulation of 
'^hpifers such as would justify the appellation of coral banks 
reefs, the genera Astrea and Caryophyllia are present ; genera 
"'hich are among architects of coral reefs in the present seas. 
A large part of the Limestone called Coral Ray, which forms 
^ elevated plains of Bullington and Cunmer, and the hills of 
yit'am, on three sides of the valley of Oxford, is filled with 
'^^ntinuous beds and ledges of petrified corals of many species, 
retaining the position in which they grew at the bottom of an 
^*'cient sea ; as coral banks, are now forming in the intertropical 
®S*ons of the present ocean. 
The same fossil coralline strata extend through the calcareous 
of the N.W. of Berkshire, and N. of Wilts; and again recur 
^fiual or still greater force in Yorkshire, in the lofty summits 
the W, and S. W. of Scarborough. 
