336 ON THE FORMATION OF CORAL ISLANDS. 



the surface of the earth as so much rock, simply; but 

 when we see the very work itself, and the steady in- 

 crease of the land through the labours of the coral 

 animals, the importance of this race of beings becomes 

 sensible, and we are struck with the immense influence 

 which all the hard marine tribes must have possessed 

 in the formation of the present earth. 



In the case of shellfishes also, we can only infer, 

 that the present extensive masses of limestone have 

 been produced by their labours. There is a complete 

 chasm between the labour and its produce: but in the 

 coral formation, this is rilled up. The labours of the 

 shell fishes are concealed by the ocean, never to be 

 known to the geologists of our own earth : the works 

 of the coral animals attain the surface of the sea. 

 The strata which they form are at once living and 

 fossil; we see them in the act of production, and the 

 mountains grow up to the day before us, new parts 

 of our own earth, not mere preparations for a future 

 one. 



It is sufficient here, to speak in the most general 

 manner of a tribe of animals, for whose description, 

 works on Zoology must be consulted. In a popular 

 view, a coral is a calcareous structure, inhabited by 

 numerous small animals, or polypi ; and each form 

 of coral possesses its own species. Each, therefore 

 forms a sort of colony ; the inhabitants of which are 

 disposed in minute cells, which they construct them- 

 selves, thus producing the general structure by their 

 joint labours, as if all actuated by one design and 

 one mind. 



This is the obvious appearance. But, in reality, 

 the entire coral plant is one animal. A continuous 

 animal structure pervades the whole ; and the cal- 

 careous matter, in whatever form, must be viewed. 



