492 POLYPUS. 



so elegantly and so truly exemplifies these mighty 

 fabrics, that such of our readers as have not read that 

 portion will thank us for this opportunity of doing so. 



"Compared with this amazing edifice, 

 Raised by the weakest creatures in existence, 

 What are the works of intellectual man ? 

 Towers, temples, palaces, and sepulchres ; 



Ideal images in sculptured forms j 

 Thoughts hewn in columns, or in domes expanded, 

 Fancies through every maze of beauty shown ; 

 Pride, gratitude, affection, turned to marble 

 In honour of the living or the dead ; 

 What are they ? fine-wrought miniatures of art, 

 Too exquisite to bear the weight of dew 

 Which every morn lets fall in pearls upon them, 

 Till all their pomp sinks down in mouldering relics ; 

 Yet in their ruin lovelier than their prime ; 



Dust in the balance, atoms in the gale. 

 Compared with these achievements in the deep, 

 Were all the monuments of olden time, 

 In days when there were giants on the earth. 



Babel's stupendous folly, though it aimed 

 To scale heaven's battlements, was but a toy, 

 The plaything- of the world in infancy : 

 The ramparts, towers, and gates of Babylon. 

 Built for eternity though, where they stood, 

 Ruin itself stands still for lack of work, 

 And desolation keeps unbroken Sabbath ; 

 Great Babylon, in its full moon of empire, 

 Even when its ' head of gold ' was smitten off, 

 And from a monarch changed into a brnte; 

 Great Babylon was like a wreath of sand 

 Left by one tide, and cancelled by the next -. 

 Egypt's dread wonders, still defying Time, 

 Where cities have been crumbled into sand, 

 Scattered by winds beyond the Libyan desert, 

 Or melted down into the mud of Nile, 

 And cast in tillage o'er the corn-sown fields, 

 Where Memphis flourished, and the Pharaohs reigned ; 

 Egypt's grey piles of hieroglyphic grandeur, 

 That have survived the language which they speak, 

 Preserving its dead emblems to the eye, 

 Yet hiding from the mind what these reveal ; 

 Her pyramids would be mere pinnacles, 

 Her giant statues, wrought ttom rocks of granite, 

 But puny ornaments for such a pile 

 As this stupendous mound of catacombs, 

 Filled with dry mummies of the builder worms." 



We will now proceed with an account of the coral 

 formations, from which we have somewhat deviated, 

 we trust, however, not unprofitably to our readers, as 

 every additional illustration of these interesting facts 

 will be duly appreciated. 



Lamaroux observes If we compare this poly- 

 pean mass, that rises from the immeasurable depth of 

 the ocean to a level with its surface, shooting into the 

 air under the form of mountains, to the Mdobesia, to 

 the Cellepora, which has only the appearance of a 

 white spot, merely a minute deposit of calcareous 

 particles, how striking is the difference ! what an 

 infinity of intermediate stages of formation must exist 

 between the two extremes ! Generally speaking, the 

 cellular Polypidoms, as well as the calciferous and 

 carnoid, seldom exceed a yard in height, and usually 

 are much smaller. The corticil'erous are sometimes 

 many yards in height. It is then in the madreporic 

 Polypidoms, those that are wholly stony, that we must 

 seek for giants in this department of the animal king- 

 dom ; whilst their architects are so small as frequently 

 to elude the naked eye, and can only be distinguished 

 by a magnifying power ; in some groups of Polypi 

 they even escape the best optical instruments, and 

 leave us only analogy and reason to demonstrate their 

 being and existence. It has, however, on the autho- 

 rities we have quoted, been shown that Polypi exist 

 of a very considerable size ; none of them, however, 

 exist on our own coasts, or in the north of Europe, 

 though it is not improbable that the equinoctial seas 

 may enclose many species as yet undescribed. 



If, notwithstanding the energetic influence of air 

 and light on all created beings, and particularly those 

 of submarine existence, we may judge, from the hues 

 that still remain to them in the cabinets of naturalists, 

 their colours must be varied and brilliant in the ex- 

 treme on their natural sites, in the fathomless profun- 

 dity of the sea. 



The atmospheric fluids rapidly affect the colour of 

 Polypidoms ; it is by no means uncommon to see a 

 Sertularia, of a brilliant yellow when first discovered 

 in the sea, fade and become a tarnished brown three 

 aours after it has left it : sometimes the change is 

 much more rapid. Sponges, of a lively lilac when 

 covered with the water, become nearly white when 

 exposed a few minutes to the contact of air and light. 

 There are, however, Polypidoms preserved many years 

 in museums whose colours appear more permanent ; 

 their stems are of a bright and deep hue, or their rind 

 of a brilliant colour ; we can readily suppose this 

 envelope to have been infinitely brighter while the 

 Polypi were in life. It is not, however, impossible 

 that, like many of the marine Floridas, some of these 

 animal productions may assume more varied hues and 

 brilliant tone of colouring, from the combined effect 

 of light, humidity, and their first stageof decomposition. 

 It is always to be remembered that these consider- 

 ations of Polypidoms are not applicable to the Polypi, 

 whose dwelling they form ; these latter are sometimes 

 of the clearest transparency, at others this pellucid 

 appearance is clouded and whitish ; they frequently 

 partake of the colour of the animated mass to which 

 they belong, only differing in shades according to the 

 various parts of organisation. In many of the Gor- 

 gonice, and in some of the Alcyoniee, the colour of the 

 Polypi is entirely different from that of the Polypidom, 

 and tbrms an elegant contrast. In general their bril- 

 liancy and transparency become tarnished and opaque 

 as soon as they are deprived of life, or exposed to 

 atmospheric influence. 



The unreflecting mind may ask what is the utility 

 of these creatures ; too small to afford material nou- 

 rishment to others, yet capable of rendering venom- 

 ous those which partake of the little they can supply ? 

 When devoured by h'shes, they have caused maladies 

 so serious and so general that travellers in those 

 regions will not touch fish, knowing it, by fatal expe- 

 rience, to be unwholesome and of a baneful quality. 

 Molluscous animals taken from the madreporic rocks 

 have been found to possess an insufferable stench ; 

 this may be accounted for by the Polypi being in a 

 state of decomposition, and their fetidness is then 

 sufficiently powerful to cause vertigos and even sus- 

 pended animation, as has been experienced by Larna- 

 roux while preparing specimens of the Antipathes 

 myriopylla, which a friend had sent him from Nice. 



Sometimes the Polypi wholly envelope, in a calca- 

 reous coating, marine plants ; and, by obstructing the 

 pores necessary for their aliment, cause them to perish 

 in a living tomb. Other innumerable instances might 

 be adduced, such as causing shipwreck, the choking 

 up of harbours, &c. 



But He, who formed the universe, created nothing 

 in vain ! His works all harmonise to blessings, un- 

 bounded by the mightiest or most minute of His cre- 

 ation. Each day displays to the properly constituted 

 mind new proofs of His wisdom in new developments 

 of His plans, and gives fresh force to the conviction 

 that our ignorance alone must obscure our view when 

 we cannot comprehend His aim of eternal good. 



