SOMETHINO ABOUT POLYPES. 



101 



It is plain from the prices here mentioned that the wine was imported; 

 and the reason so much was consumed is, it is said to haA^e been a fish 

 dinner, a great quantity of wine being required for the various sauces. The 

 Egyptians ascribed the invention of wine to Osiris, the Latins to Saturn, while 

 the Greeks elevated Bacchus to the rank of a god ! And as the god of vintage 

 of wine, and of drinkers, he is represented as crowned with the Vine, and, ac- 

 cording to Pliny, to have been the first who ever wore a crown, of which Ovid 



thus takes notice: — 



" the grapy clustei's spi'ead 



On his fair brows, and dangle on his head." 



5, Middle Street, Taunton. 



SOMETHING ABOUT POLYPES. 



BY MRS. ARTHUR ADAMS. 

 Continued from page 60. 



Chapter II. 

 Imagination shall lead us now beneath the ocean, where dwell those tiny 

 architects which have been the untiring agents of the Almighty Mind, in 

 carrying out a portion of the grand scheme of creation. Vast districts, 

 studded over with these flower-like animals, wox-king unseen, unheard — ^yet 

 ever toiling from ages past, to ages yet unborn, in extending the dominions 

 of man. Slowly, yet surely, they uprear the living pile. 



"High in the flood the azure dome ascends, 

 The ci'ystal arch on crystal columns bends, 

 Eoofd with translucent shell the turrets blaze, 

 And far in Ocean dart their colour' d rays; 

 O'er the white floor successive shadows move. 

 As rise and break the ruffled waves above.* 



To the labours of these little animals, may be traced the existence of the islands 

 of the Polynesian Archipelago, and many in the Indian Ocean ; and there are 

 reefs not yet above the level of the sea of far greater extent than any of 

 these, which, bye and bye, will be the foundations of new worlds, when, by 

 volcanic agency, or other means they are raised. The Polypes sheltered by 

 submarine rocks, have reared their dwellings till they reached the surface; 

 after a little time they are covered with sand and mud, an island forms, gradually 

 enlarges, and becomes higher by the accumulation of sand, and the waves of 

 the sea have no more power over it. Winds and currents bring the germs 

 of vegetation, and the barren rock soon becomes a fruitful spot amid the wild 

 waste of waters, where the birds of the air build their nests, and man at 

 length finds a home. ^^Thus," as Darwin remarks, ^'do we see the soft and 

 gelatinous body of a polypus, through the agency of the vital laws, conquering 

 the great mechanical power of the waves of an ocean, which neither the art 

 of man nor the inanimate works of nature could successfully resist." 



The generally received opinion is, that Lagoon islands, or "Atolls" have their 

 * Darwin's "Loves of the Plants," Canto I. 



