THE OCEAN AND ITS LIFE. 109 



on his threatened island against the destructive flood : 

 polypi struggling boldly against the unmeasured ocean ! 

 If all the natiofis on earth united, they could not build 

 the smallest of these coral reefs in the ocean but the 

 corals build a part of the crust of the great earth! For 

 their islands count alone in the South Sea by thousands; 

 all but a few feet above the surface of the sea, which, 

 around, is unfathomable ; all ring-shaped, with a peaceful 

 lake in the centre ; all consisting of no other material but 

 that of still living corals. These islands are planted and 

 peopled by the same waves, by whom they were raised 

 above high-water mark. The currents bring seed and 

 carry large living trees from distant shores; lizards dwell- 

 ing in their roots, birds nestling in their branches, and 

 insects innumerable arrive with the tree, and water birds 

 soon give life to the scanty, little strip of newly made 

 land. 



Thus they meet below, plant and animal ; the pale, 

 hueless fucus twining its long, ghastly arms around the 

 bright scarlet coral, and through their branches glides the 

 nautilus with wide-spread sails. Every ray of light that 

 falls on the surface, changes hue and tinge below. But 

 the deep has lights of its own. There is the glimmer of 

 gorgeous fish in gold and silver armor, the phosphorescent 

 sheen of the milk-white or sky-blue bells of brilliant 

 medusae, as they pass through the purple-colored tops of 

 lofty fuci, and the bright, sparkling light of tiny, gelatinous 

 creatures, chasing each other along the blue and olive- 

 green hedges of algse and humbler plants. When day 

 fades, and night covers with her dark mantle the sea also, 



