THE OCEAN AND ITS LIFE. 107 



bottom of the ocean, rising stone upon stone, and cemented 

 like no other building on this globe. 



For they are a* strange mysterious race, these "maidens 

 of the ocean," as the old Greeks used to call them. Their 

 beauty of form and color, their marvellous economy, their 

 gigantic edifices, all had early attracted the attention of 

 the curious, and given rise to fantastic fables, and amus- 

 ing errors. For centuries the world believed that these 

 bright-colored, delicate flowers, which, out of their element, 

 appeared only humble, brown stones, were real, fragile 

 sea-plants, which the contact with air instantaneously turned 

 into stone. Even the last century adhered yet to this 

 belief, and only repeated and energetic efforts succeeded 

 in establishing their claim to a place in the animal king- 

 dom. Charles Darwin, at last, in the charming account 

 he has given us of his voyages, set all errors aside, and 

 made us familiar with this most wondrous of all creatures. 



Now we all know their atolls and coral-rings, in the 

 warm seas of the tropics, with the green crowns of slen- 

 der palm-trees waving over them in the breeze, and man 

 living securely in their midst. For in vain has he him- 

 self tried to protect his lands against the fury of the 

 ocean, in vain has he labored and pressed all the forces 

 of nature, even all-powerful steam, into his service. But 

 the minute polypi work quietly and silently, with mod- 

 est industry, in their never-ceasing struggle with the 

 mighty waves of the sea. A struggle it is, for, strangely 

 enough, they never build in turbid, never in still waters; 

 their home is amid the most violent breakers, and living 

 force, though so minute, triumphs victoriously over the 



