The Mighty Deep 



This kind seldom exceeds ten or twelve inches 

 in length ; and when alive, the pretty branching 

 skeleton is clothed in a thin tinted jelly-like 

 vesture, which, though in a sense one, is yet 

 no "single individual." It is formed of many 

 polyps, all united together, while each has its own 

 separate mouth, and each holds out its own tiny 

 feelers for food. Once let the branch be taken 

 from the water, and only one result can follow. 

 Life quickly fades ; the enfolding vesture dis- 

 appears ; and a bare red skeleton is left for 

 use in the market, to be made into toy or 

 ornament. 



The word Coral has other associations. It 

 carries our thoughts far from home to fair isles 

 in tropical seas — isles connected in our memories 

 with tales of shipwrecked mariners and hair- 

 breadth escapes, of dashing waves and peaceful 

 lagoons, of breadfruit trees and waving palms, 

 of perpetual sunshine and endless holidays, of 

 Robinson Crusoe adventures and interesting 

 islanders, of poisoned arrows and ferocious 

 sharks. 



Such islands do exist, and in numbers far 

 greater than we commonly realise. 



At this moment I have before me a map of 

 the world, made for the express purpose of 



164 



