C. F. HOLDER l6l 



granite, or quartz, would ultimately yield and be 

 demolished by such an irresistible power. Yet 

 these low, insignificant coral-islets stand and are 

 victorious ; for here another power, as an antago- 

 nist, takes part in the contest. The organic forces 

 separate the atoms of carbonate of lime, one by 

 one, from the foaming breakers, and unite them 

 into a symmetrical structure. Let the hurricane 

 tear up its thousand huge fragments ; yet what 

 will that tell against the accumulated labours of 

 myriads of architects at work night and day, month 

 after month ? Thus do we see the soft and gela- 

 tinous body of a polypus, through the agency of the 

 vital laws, conquering the great mechanical power 

 of the waves of an ocean which neither the art of 

 man nor the inanimate works of nature could 



successfully resist. 



Charles Darwin. 



The Sea-Garden •<:> <:> <:iy 



(From 7'he Log of a Sea- Angler) 



T^HE island of Santa Catalina is a picture with a 

 turquoise background, the Kuroshiwo of Japan, 

 which flows down our coast and has a frame of 

 emerald green, the kelp beds ; and with rare ex- 

 ceptions the entire Pacific coast is protected in this 

 way, the giant weed rising in water thirty or more 

 feet in height, reaching the surface, and forming 



M 



