The Mighty Deep 



We have seen something of ocean " stone- 

 makers," in the story of Chalk. Here we have 

 the same thing again. As the tiny shells, which 

 go to the building of chalk, are the dead 

 remains of once-living jelly-specks, so these 

 great masses of coral, forming islands and reefs 

 in southern seas, are largely the skeletons of 

 once-living polyps. 



A coral-polyp, like a jelly-speck, has power 

 to take lime from sea- water. It has power 

 to secrete carbonate-of-lime. It has power to 

 deposit that carbonate-of-lime in solid masses. 



But whereas the jelly-speck lives inside its 

 shell, putting out tiny temporary limbs through 

 holes for food, the coral-polyp more often lives 

 outside its skeleton, clothing the dry bones with 

 translucent jelly. This is rather more after the 

 fashion in which man clothes his skeleton. Yet 

 because of its make the coral-polyp cannot 

 properly, in the full sense of the word, " secrete " 

 or hide its internal framework. 



It is hardly fair to speak of "the polyp" and 

 of " it " in this connection. " Polyps " and " they " 

 are more correct. 



For the coral-polyps live in close communities, 

 in very near fellowship, acting on co-operative 

 principles of the most advanced kind. Each 



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