182 POPULAR HISTORY OF THE AQUARIUM. 



'' I searched some time without success for the Coral, and 

 had begun to despair of finding it ; for the tide was almost 

 at its lowest ; when suddenly I caught sight of one pro- 

 jecting from under the surface of one of the slanting ridges 

 of rock. The water would not allow me to reach it with 

 any hope of detaching it uninjured, but presently I peeped 

 into a small cavern formed by large masses of rock piled 

 one against another, in which there were nearly a score of 

 them. By a little manoeuvring, I managed to squeeze my 

 body between the stones, so as to work with the chisel, dis- 

 regardful of the water which covered my feet below, and 

 the coating of mud, the slimy Zoophytes, and Sponges, that 

 adhered to the overhanging rock above me. The Corals 

 varied in size, from that of a pea to three-quarters of an inch 

 in diameter. They were not at all clustered, but scattered at 

 irregular distances. I observed them to be fixed to per- 

 pendicular and overhanging surfaces, but in no case on a 

 -diagonal or a horizontal one with an upward aspect; not 

 even in the remotest part of the cavern. All that I saw 

 were left exposed by the receding tide, though in any but 

 spring tide they would all have been constantly covered. I 

 afterwards found a few more on the sides of ])ools in the 

 rockv rids^es several feet above low-water mark." 



