24 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



been raised to tlie sui'face^ the pel}' pes could raise it no 

 higher, for all their materials were found in tlie waters, and 

 they could not live out of the sea. The sea, for a time, 

 would roll over it, but when it reached the surface, sea- 

 weeds and branches of trees, and fragments of wrecked 

 vessels, and many other things floating in the deep, would 

 be entangled among the branching corals, and as they 

 became decomposed, soil would thereby be formed. The 

 reef, in general, is observed to be the highest to the wind- 

 ward, for though the hurricane might break off large frag- 

 ments they would often be heaped upon the reef; and under 

 water the polypes would soon repair the damage. Coral- 

 sand and shells broken by the storm would often be tossed 

 up and deposited on the reef. Penguins and other guano 

 birds would find it a resting-place, and would enrich it by 

 their droppings before it was a safe place for their nests. 

 The sea would bring the seeds of various plants ; cocoa-nuts 

 from adjoining islands would often be wafted by the waves, 

 and, as soon as any soil was formed, would vegetate and spring 

 up. Flowers, in course of time, would be intermingled, 

 and, ere long, the reef would become a beautiful garden, 

 abounding in all the shrubs, and trees, and flowers, and fruits, 

 which grow in such beauty and luxuriance in southern climes 



