Coral Architects 



showing " Coral Seas," or the regions where 

 Coral islands are constructed. And the red 

 patches are astonishingly plentiful, dotting a 

 broad belt of ocean all round the world, except 

 where that belt is interrupted by Continents, 

 within the limits, roughly, of 30 north latitude 

 and 30 south latitude. 



In the West Indies coral islands abound. 

 Travelling westward from America we come 

 across the same material, in extensive regions 

 to the north-east, the north, and the north- 

 west of Australia. Tahiti, Samoa, the Fijis, the 

 Solomons, the New Hebrides, the Carolines, the 

 Marshall Islands, the Seychelles, and innumerable 

 others, are literally made of coral. 



Not made as sandstone and chalk are made, 

 put together by the slow action of the sea, far 

 below the surface. This is another kind of 

 making. 



Coral is built by living creatures, near the 

 surface of the water. All that the waves have 

 to do is, firstly, to bring abundance of food to the 

 polyps, when alive, since by reason of their 

 ponderous rock-skeletons they cannot go in 

 search of food ; and secondly, after the death 

 of the polyps, to break and grind and heap 

 together the skeleton-remains. 



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