The descendants of most of them live on, altered by time, which alters all things; and from the beauty of the children we can guess at the beauty of their ancestors; just as from the coral-reefs which exist now we can guess how the coral-reefs of old were made.

And that this stone was once part of a coral-reef the corals in it prove at first sight.
And what is a coral-reef like?
You have seen the room in the British Museum full of corals, madrepores, brain-stones, corallines, and sea-ferns?
Oh yes.
Then fancy all those alive.

Not as they are now, white stone: but covered in jelly; and out of every pore a little polype, like a flower, peeping out.

Fancy them of every gaudy colour you choose.

No bed of flowers, they say, can be more brilliant than the corals, as you look down on them through the clear sea.