CHAPTER XXII. 



HOW CORAL GROWS. 



S.trangc Chapter. Coral insects unworthy of notice. Misplaced eulogy. 

 Theories of Coral growth. The insect monument and tomb. Not 

 found below thirty fathoms. Coral found a mile and a half deep. 

 Coral on the Isthmus of Panama, not made by insects. The Coral 

 insect a parasite merely. The cochineal. How Cqpal grows. 

 Millions feeding from one month. Coral grows by budding. 

 Agassiz on Florida reefs, and argument against Darwin. Darwin's 

 curious theories on Coral reefs. Sir John Herschell. How Cord 

 commences to grow. The true theory of reefs. How a gap in a 

 reef was filled. Coral merely the home of the insect. 



THE title of this chapter may seem strange, as we have 

 always been taught that Coral did not grow, but was desigried 

 and built by small insects. Many are the lessons that have 

 been drawn from their supposed industry, the sermons that 

 liave been preached on them, and the lectures in which eminent 

 men have waxed eloquent upon them, but it is our painful duty 

 to inform naturalists generally, that their eulogy is misplaced, 

 tfhat coral iasocts are no more to be compared to bees, than 

 sand is to sugar, and that they are as unworthy of notice as a 

 common grub or fly. 



Coral is only found in equatorial latitudes. In the Pacific 

 Ocean there are islands said to be entirely composed of it, and 

 these appear to have been formed from the bottom to the 

 surface. 



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