THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



the coral life itself blooms only within the limits 

 of the one hundred and twenty feet below the 

 surface. In the whole six thousand feet below 

 lie the lime structures of the unnumbered dead 

 generations formerly housed in them, the im- 

 mense place of skulls of the poor never-resting 

 workers that with their hard bone material built 

 up a long ladder for their successors. A tri- 

 umph of life without an equal ! 



And yet this is not all. The fine crescent form 

 of the coral island, that like a white ring en- 

 circles the emerald lake, is significant. The cliff 

 on which the corals originally began to build 

 was in truth no solitary projecting rock. What 

 in reality jutted out of this place during primi- 

 tive times was a great island. Mountains lay in 

 its midst, from which springs ran down to the 

 beach. From this beach, however, the platform 

 fell away in steep stages to the abyss. The one 

 hundred and twenty foot stage was the level on 

 which the corals began to settle and to build 

 their "cliff." Naturally, this stage ran around 

 the entire island, and therefore the coral colony 

 from the beginning took on the form of a circle 

 around the island — an encompassing ring. 

 Upon this level they erected within this circle 

 their first wall, up to the surface of the water. 

 Gradually they raised a battlement of lime a lit- 

 tle less than one hundred and twenty feet high 

 around the entire island. Only at a few places 

 lOS 



