XI 



wall openings are always left that communicate with 

 the external waters, that the polypi within may be 

 continually supplied with aliment, and the principal 

 materials for the construction of their habitations. 



The navigator confidently sailing in a sea that his 

 predecessors have indicated as free from rocks, dashes 

 his prow on an unexspected shelf, whose sides are 

 so perpendicular, that at his stern no sounding can 

 be found ; and when combating with 'the fury of the 

 tempest he meets one of these openings which chance 

 or the instinct of the polypi have left unclosed, he 

 enters a harbour of slightly undulating waters, 

 sheltered from the contending storms, which without 

 the barrier seem bent on its annihilation, but cannot 

 shake it. 



The Polypidoms do not always rise to the surface 

 of the waters ; some extend themselves horizontally 

 on the base of the sea, or pursue its curvatures, and 

 spread Ocean's floor w ith an enamelled carpet of va- 

 ried and brilliant colours; at other times this carpet 

 has only one shade, almost equalling the Tyrian purple 

 of antiquity. Many of these beings resemble a bush 

 that winter has despoiled of its leaves, but which 

 spring has renovated with fresh flowers; and attract 

 by the beauty of the petaled animals with which their 

 branches arc covered from the base to the extremities. 



