WONDERS OF THE CORAL FORMATION. 103 



From the land of promise ve fade and die, 

 Ere its verdure gleams on your wearied eye." 



One marvel ceases here, and another commences. The 

 vegetation of the sea, cast on its surface, undergoes a chem- 

 ical change ; the rains assist in filling up the little cells of 

 the dead animals ; the fowls of the air and the ocean find a 

 resting-place, and assist in clothing the rocks ; mosses car- 

 pet the surface ; seed brought by birds, plants carried by 

 the oceanic current, animaculee floating in the air live, prop- 

 agate and die, and are succeeded through the assistance 

 their remains bestow by more advanced animal and veg- 

 etable life ; and thus generation after generation exist and 

 perish, until at length the coral island becomes a Paradise, 

 filled with the choicest exotics, the most beautiful birds and 

 delicious fruits. 



Here is a glowing theme for the imagination to dwell 

 upon ! How wonderful to think that the surface of the 

 globe is being changed by these diminutive living agents ; 

 that in tropical climates they are encircling islands wdth 

 belts of coral, enlarging their coasts, forming stupendous 

 reefs, and working out the plans and the will of the great 

 Architect of the Universe ! 



We feel surprised, when travelers tell us of the vast di- 

 mensions of the Pyramids and other great ruins ; but how 

 utterly insignificant are the greatest of these when com- 

 pared to the mountains of stone accumulated by the agency 

 of various minute and tender animals ! 



How wonderful is the instinct and design of self-preser- 

 vation in insects so exceedingly minute as the coral workers 

 or ocean rock builders! Pope graphically says: 



•* Who taught the natives of the field and wood 

 To shun their poison or to choose their food? 

 Prescient, the tides and tempests to withstand, 

 Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand ?" 



