172 THE OCEAN WOULD. 



specimen there must be many thousands, yet we see that they act by 

 one movement. They have also one central axis connected with a 

 system of obscure circulation, and the ova are produced in an organ 

 distinct from the separate individuals. For," adds Mr. Darwin, in a 

 note, "the cavities leading from the fleshy compartments of the 

 extremity were filled with a yellow pulpy matter which, under a 

 microscope, consisted of rounded semi-transparent grains aggregated 

 together into particles of various sizes. All such particles, as well as 

 separate grains, possessed the power of rapid motion, generally revolv- 

 ing round different axes, but sometimes progressive." 



The description of the Island of Cocos or Keeling is as follows : 

 " The ring-formed reef of the lagoon island is surmounted, in the 

 greater part of its length, by linear islets. On the northern, or 

 leeward side, there is an opening through which vessels can pass to 

 the anchorage within. On entering, the scene was very curious, and 

 rather pretty ; its beauty, however, entirely depended on the brilliancy 

 of the surrounding colours. The shallow, clear, and still water of 

 the lagoon, resting in its greater part on white sand, is, when illu- 

 mined by a vertical sun, of the most vivid green. This brilliant ex- 

 panse, several miles in width, is on all sides divided, either by a line 

 of snow-white breakers from the dark heaving waters of the ocean, or 

 from the blue vault of heaven by the strips of land crowned by the 

 level tops of the cocoa-nut tree. As a white cloud here and there 

 affords a pleasing contrast to the azure sky, so in the lagoon bands of 

 living coral darken the emerald-green water. 



" The next morning I went ashore on Direction Island. The strip 

 of dry land is only a few hundred yards in width ; on the lagoon side 

 there was a white calcareous beach, the radiation from which, under 

 this sultry climate, was very oppressive. On the outer coast, a solid 

 broad flat of coral rock served to break the violence of the open sea. 

 Excepting near the lagoon, where there is some sand, the land is 

 entirely composed of rounded fragments of coral. In such a loose, 

 dry, stony soil, the climate of the intertropical regions alone could 

 produce so vigorous a vegetation. On some of the smaller islets, nothing 

 could be more elegant than the manner in which the young and full- 

 grown cocoa-nut trees, without destroying each other's symmetry, 

 were mingled into one wood. A beach of glittering white sand formed 

 a border to those fairy spots. 



