Remarks on Coral Animals in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence^ by Capt. Bayfield, R.N, 



X HE rapid growth of Corals in Tropical climates, is a 

 fact which has attracted the attention of naturalists in all 



ages, hut it was not until the end of the sixteenth or 

 beginning of the seventeenth century that their true nature 

 appears to have been suspected. From the time of Pliny, 

 up to the period I have mentioned, they Avere considered 

 to be marine plants. A French naturalist, I believe, first 

 observed that the various ramifications of the coral were 

 inhabited by numerous tribes of insects or minute animals. 

 These animals were observed to have the power of protrud- 

 ing themselves from, and receding into small ajcrtures. It 

 has also been noticed, tliat when first taken out of the sea, 

 the points whicii are protruded are soft, and that they are 

 filled with a milky fluid ; hence it has been inferred that 

 nature has not been deficient in this any more than in every 

 other case with which we are accjuainted, in providing 

 these aninuils both with the means of subsistence, and of 

 forming their peculiar abode in the ocean. 



It will be unnecessary for me to trespass on the time of 

 the society, by entering into a desci iption of the stupendous 

 operation of the coral animals in seas between, or in the 

 vicinity of the Tropics.— They are best described In tho 

 writings of Dr. Fobtcr, uml in the voyages of Flinders and 



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