SEPTEMBER. 337 



But nothing can be more beautiful than a 

 view of the bottom of the ocean, during a 

 calm, even round our own shores, but particu- 

 larly in tropical climates, especially when it 

 consists alternately of beds of sand and masses 

 of rock. The water is frequently so clear and 

 undisturbed, that, at great depths, the minutest 

 objects are visible; groves of coral are seen 

 expanding their variously-coloured clumps, 

 some rigid and immoveable, and others waving 

 gracefully their flexile branches. Shells of 

 every form and hue glide slowly along the 

 stones, or cling to the coral boughs like fruit ; 

 crabs and other marine animals pursue their 

 preys in the crannies of the rocks, and sea- 

 plants spread their limber fronds in gay and 

 gaudy irregularity, while the most beautiful 

 fishes are on every side sporting around. 



The floor is of sand, like the mountain-drift, 



And the pearl-shells spangle the flinty snow ; 

 From coral rocks the sea-plants lift 



Their boughs, where the tides and billows flow ; 

 The water is calm and still below, 



For the winds and waves are absent there ; 

 And the sands are bright as the stars that glow 



In the motionless fields of the upper air : 



