200 WHAT MR. DARWIN SAW. 



INDIAN OCEAN. 



The living polyps 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 thou- 

 sand huge fragments; yet what will that tell against the ac- 

 cumulated labor of myriads of architects at work night and 

 day, month after month ? Thus do we see the soft and gelati- 



COCOA-NUT PALM. 



nous 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. 



A few miles north of Keeling there is another small atoll, 

 the lagoon of which is nearly filled up with coral mud. Cap- 



