2 Coral Animals in the 



Kotzebue ; more recently still by the French naturalists, 

 M.M. Guoi and Gaimard. These last writers have stated 

 that the works of these animals do not commence at such 

 amazing depths as has been supposed, but that they carry 

 pn their operations around and on the summit of submarine 

 rocks, generally at a depth not exceeding twenty-five or 

 thirty feet below the surface of the sea. This depth, 1 have 

 little doubt is underrated, for I have seen coral in the West 

 Indies at much greater depths, and the specimens which I 

 now present, were obtained from the bottom between 

 twenty and thirty fathoms below the surface. 



The various kinds of coral are now stated by naturalists 

 to be the work of various tribes of lithophytic animals, all 

 more or less minute, of which the different species of 

 madrepores are by far the most numerous. 



The specimen No. 1, was obtained by accident, a fish- 

 hook having fastened in one of its cavities, by which it was 

 drawn up from the bottom ; the depth was between twenty 

 and thirty fathoms, and Me were then off the north 

 coast of the island of Anticosti, and within the 50th degree 

 of north latitude. 1 at first imagined that it was something 

 new to find corals in a latitude so far north, but I have 

 now my doubts of its being anything very uncommon, from 

 finding that Cuvier makes the following observation res- 

 pecting some of the genera of lithophytes, viz. — " It occurs 

 most frequently in tropical climates, and decreases in 

 number and variety as we approach the poles." 



This specimen is composed of a mass of Anticosti lime- 

 stone, around the sides and upper parts of which is a sort 

 of cement, the produce and the abode of the animals which 

 1 have next to mention. 



It will readily be perceived that there are a number of 



