THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



did they leave an opening through this battle- 

 ment : namely, where the fresh water brooks ran 

 down to the sea, thus stopping their work.* 

 Now, however, began the sinking — the subsi- 

 dence of the entire island. The foundation 

 stage sank — so the battlement was raised. At 

 a certain time the whole island with all its moun- 

 tains disappeared from sight. In the central 

 space inclosed by the battlement, a lake took 

 the place of the drowned island, a lake into 

 which the sea water streamed through all the 

 old gates in the walled circle. The corals could 

 then have built within this lake, but they pre- 

 ferred the external side with the breakers and 

 disdained to locate the sloping meadows within 

 the peaceful pond. As time passed this pond 

 grew deeper, like a crater within the coral ring. 

 The old battlement remained standing a con- 

 queror that continued to assert the old circular 

 form, like a mathematical circle, from which 

 the contents had long been lost. The island lay 

 beneath, the coral ring lived and raised, life has 

 saved its island, in spite of all the powers of the 

 earth. 



We came upon the shell-fish in the rocks un- 

 der the Alpine roses. We can imagine now that, 

 through one of the incalculable changes of the 



•The coral polyp requires water less than one hundred and 

 twenty feet deep, with a temperature about 68° Fahr. The 

 water must be clear, salt and not too quiet. — Trans. 



104 



