VARIETY AND BEAUTY OF MARSH LIl'E 249 



which develop far more rapidly than is possible with organisms 

 abiding in the midnight darkness which exists in deeper parts 

 of the sea. 



Owing to their novelty and in a measure to their singular 

 features the coral reefs have appealed to the imaginations of 

 observers and have received a share of attention and interest 

 which is much out of proportion to their real value among 

 our coastal accumulations. The less noticed because more 

 familiar deposits, such as are contained in our marine marshes, 

 art* not only on the whole more important, but are in their 

 way as beautiful, and from a scientific point, as noteworthy 

 as the barrier reefs and atolls which here and there occur 

 within and near the tropical realm. To the thoughtful observer 

 the marine marshes of New England or Georgia afford b)- 

 the variety and beauty of their phenomena even more in- 

 teresting structures than any which the zoophytes build. The 

 part they play in relation to the interests of man is much 

 more important than that which is performed by the reef- 

 building animals. In their aspect they are much more in- 

 teresting than the constructions due to the pohps. There 

 is nothing in the coral islands to compare with the brilliancy 

 of coloring which the marshes of New England exhibit at 

 certain seasons of the year ; nothing like the variety of hue 

 which characterizes these prairies by the sea in the different 

 seasons, and which makes it possible for the naturalist to 

 trace the changes in their aspect month by month through 

 the annual cycle. None of the elements of form of the coral 

 reefs approach in beauty those afforded by the marine marshes. 

 The growing portion of the reef is almost altogether hidden 

 from the eye ; all that is evident consists of ruins tossed up 

 by the waves or elevated with the uprisings of the shore but 



