CORAL POLYPES. 199 



its chances of double fare. A new mouth, fur- 

 nished with new rows of numerous tentacula, was 

 opened up on what had been the base, and led to 

 the under stomach ! " 



Specimens of the coral-building polypes of the 

 tropical seas have sometimes been found in deep 

 water off the shores of the British islands. They 

 belong to the same order as the sea-anemones 

 we have been referring to, but to a different 

 family. The structures which these creatures rear 

 in the Pacific are of amazing extent. One of the 

 coral reefs off the eastern coast of New Holland 

 is 1000 miles in length, and there are groups of 

 coral islands extending more than 1200 miles 

 with a breadth of 300 or 400. These are entirely 

 constructed by those minute but indefatigable 

 labourers, and afford one out of many other 

 proofs of the magnitude of the effects which by 

 the arrangements of Divine Providence are pro- 

 duced in the natural world by agents individually 

 feeble in the extreme, but possessing marvellous 

 power when united in great numbers. The 

 organisation of those apparently insignificant 

 beings, and the instinct with which they are 

 endowed, adapt them to perform, with a precision 

 never exceeded by the most skilful chemist, one 

 of the grandest operations of nature's laboratory. 

 The currents of the ocean bring to them in the 

 sea-water a solution of carbonate of lime, washed 

 by the rains and carried by the rivers of remote 

 continents into the sea. This lime those little 

 chemists separate from the sea-water, and form 



O 4 



