^i^ ISLEfS Of RUMMEK. 



or slinib, through its little round of life it remains fastened to 

 the same spot, and the process of increasing and multiplying 

 never stops. Closely compacted in compound groups, a single 

 zoophyte is formed by a budding process differing little from the 

 budding process in vegetable growth. The coral animals while 

 thus closely associated, living together and constantly multiply- 

 ing, secrete the beautiful corallum or coral of commerce and cab- 

 inets, which is merely the skeleton on which the soft and perishable 

 portion of the animal rests, and to which it adheres. Coral reefs 

 are, in their outer surfaces, mainly composed of great communi- 

 ties of these flowering zoophytes, below which the dead skeletons 

 are compacted and solidified. 



The coral reefs were divided by Charles Darwin in his Voyage 

 of a Naturalist, published many years ago, into three classes. 

 The first, which are found in the immediate neighborhood of the 

 land, in shallow water, he called fringing reef corals; and the 

 second, barrier reef corals. These two surround islands or skirt 

 continents, but they are separated from the neighboring shores 

 by navigable channels, while their outer margins often border 

 ocean depths as vast as those seen from lofty mountain tops. A 

 barrier coral reef is formed off the coast of Australia, of sufficient 

 length to more than reach from Nassau to New York. It is from 

 twenty to thirty miles from the shore, and is a breakwater to a 

 great natural highway, having a depth of water of from sixty to 

 six hundred feet. The remaining class of coral reefs are circular 

 in form and are called atolls. They encircle great lagoons, or 

 large areas of ocean water, to which access is generally obtained 

 through breaches or openings uj^on their leeward sides — where 

 Ave would naturally anticipate the little corals would be most ac- 

 tively at work, as they would be there less exposed to the force 

 and fury of the ocean when its billows are storm-tossed. But 

 Creative Wisdom has secured their services for the windward side 



