JEWEL-MAKERS AND ISLAND BUILDERS. 



21 



be justly called jewelers of the sea. But some kinds of 

 coral animals do even a greater thing than to prepare 

 their bodies to adorn a maiden's neck ; they pile their 

 skeletons in such vast heaps and so high, that islands 

 are formed upon which trees grow, and animals, and 

 even men, live. The Bermuda Islands in the Atlantic 

 are raised on coral beds ; and coral reefs are thrown 

 out around the Florida coasts. 

 The most interesting of coral 

 islands are in the Pacific Ocean. 



The island builders, though 

 too coarse and dull in their hard 

 parts to answer for ornaments, 

 are none the less beautiful in 

 their forms. They live in trop- 

 ical waters which never grow 

 colder than summer warmth. 

 They can not live in a depth 

 of water greater than about one 

 hundred and eighty feet. How, 

 then, can they rear islands from 

 the bottom of the sea ? 



Geography tells us that on 

 the sea-bottom rest hills and mountains like the eleva- 

 tions which rise on the dry land. Some of these 

 mountains are very lofty, and upon them are caught 

 and gathered immense quantities of dead shells, and 

 rubbish that floats in the ocean. In this way these 

 mountains lift their heads higher and higher; and 

 when one of them comes within two hundred feet of 

 the surface, the coral polyps begin to fasten upon it, 

 and to make it their home. 



Reef-coral and Polyp. 



