THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



tiny openings into it like doors from the sea to 

 the ocean. This whole island rises like a crater 

 rim out of the wide expanse of the ocean waves. 

 The rim is crowned by the palms. The inner 

 crater is filled with the green sea. Against the 

 hard outer rim the white spray bi-eaks. The 

 crater sea lies peacefully in the lap of this rim 

 with its palm crown 



Now, aside from the peculiarly significant 

 form of the whole island, the dazzUng whiteness 

 of the rim strikes us. It rises out of the spray- 

 ing foam as though formed of meerschaum — in 

 every way resembling iron-hardened meer- 

 schaum. There lies a single block, torn loose by 

 an exceptionally angry breaker and hurled upon 

 the beach. The broken side shows an open struc- 

 ture like a petrified mass of foam bubbles. But 

 we recognize another writing here, the sign of 

 life. These are the tiny supporting pyramids 

 of dead coral animals. This whole rim of land 

 is nothing more than the work of corals. The 

 coral supports form stone, and tiny fragments 

 of the supports form the white sand. The naked 

 lime skeleton bared of the living flesh produces 

 this dazzling white lime color. It is here that 

 the palms like a race of monstrous parasitical* 

 polyps have established themselves on the skele- 



*The word parasitical here is not wholly correct. A para- 

 site lives upon a living organism. The word saprophyte is 

 used to apply to a plant that lives on dead organic matter. — 

 Trans. 



97 



