THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



day the rim raised above the tops of the sea- 

 waves, and became the ground, which has been 

 further heightened by pieces of coral hme stone 

 thrown up by the storm. The Alpine storms 

 sometimes seize upon the real meadows with wild 

 hand, and tear out blocks covered with the Al- 

 pine roses and hurl them into the valley; here, 

 on the contrary, towering waves constantly tear 

 loose new coral colonies with their supports from 

 below and toss them up on the coast. Sand 

 creeps into the joints, life goes out, and finally 

 the fragments lie above the surface of the sea. 

 However often the breakers may wear the mater- 

 ial away, just so often new contributions come to 

 this highest pyramid of skulls. Finally the mor- 

 tar field of the corals rises out of the water as a 

 permanent hard ridge, while down along the 

 slope below the water there hangs a colored ani- 

 mal meadow blooming joyfully. Now the first 

 floating cocoanuts from distant coasts land. 

 Then the palm forest rises, la which the crabs, 

 coming from some distant beach, flock in their 

 amphibious youthful form. Life has built an 

 island for life. It has not simply conquered the 

 land for itself. It has itself created land in the 

 wilderness of the world ocean — an island of 

 coral lime. We have been told of a silicious alga 

 that by boundless multiplication could build a 

 new earth. That was merely the dream of a 

 possibility. Here we have the actual picture. 



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