508 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



of this operation of the separation of the salts 

 of lime from the waters of the ocean, when it 

 is stated that the solid limestone rocks of our 

 own and other countries are often visibly made 

 up of the relics of animals possessing this 

 peculiar faculty ; and it appears probable that 

 all limestone, with some exceptions of small 

 moment, were thus obtained by the slow but 

 perpetual process of the separation of the salts 

 of lime from a state of solution in sea-water. 

 Professor Forchhammer states the remarkable 

 fact, that in the coral seas the proportion of 

 lime is much less than in other waters. 



The coral formations, however, strike us as the 

 most surprising result of the slow but ceaseless 

 operations of vital chemistry upon the consti- 

 tuents of sea-water. Writing of Keeling Island, 

 litr. Darwin says, " I am glad we have visited 

 these Islands ; such formations surely rank 

 high among the wonderful objects of this world. 

 Captain Fitzroy found no bottom with a line 

 7,200 feet in length, at the distance of only 

 2,200 yards from the shore ; hence this island 

 forms a lofty submarine mountain, with sides 

 steeper even than those of the most abrupt 

 volcanic cone. The saucer-shaped summit is 

 nearly ten miles across : and every single atom, 

 from the least particle to the largest fragment 

 of rock in this great pile, which however is 



