62 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



of the globe by the operations of the coral worm, 

 a little creature so small as to be scarcely visible. 

 New islands, he says, produced by its means, are 

 continually rising out of the sea, and old ones 

 are becoming united to others, or to the continent. 

 In reading about something else, I met with a 

 singular instance of this, in the account of 

 Saugor Island, and Edmonstone's Isle, in the 

 Bay of Bengal, Edmonstone's Isle appeared 

 so lately as 1818; it is already two miles long, 

 and half a mile broad, and the channel between 

 the two islands is so shallow, that, in afewyears, 

 they will probably be joined together. Vege- 

 tation had commenced immediately on the 

 most central and elevated part ; saltwort, with 

 one or two other plants, had given it a verdant 

 tint, and by daily binding the shifting sand, 

 were contributing to form the basis of a more 

 durable soil. 



Coral was formerly thought to be a vegetable, 

 and even the celebrated Tournefort considered 

 it to be a marine moss ; but it is now known to 

 be the production of a race of animals, of which 

 it seems as much a part as the shell is of the 

 snail. Most of the islands in the South Sea are 

 coral rocks covered with earth. My uncle says 

 that late voyagers have asserted that the bays and 

 harbours of many of these islands have been 

 observed to be gradually closing up, by the pro- 

 gress of these extraordinary creatures ; and that 



