CHAPTER VIII. 



CORALS AND MADREPORES. 



AT various depths of the ocean, objects are often 

 observed of great interest and beauty. To quote an 

 old poet, Du Bartas : 



" Seas have, 



As well as earth, vines, roses, nettles, melons, 

 Mushrooms, pinks, gilliflowers, and many millions 

 Of other plants more rare and strange than these, 

 As very fishes living in the seas." 



Southey, in closing his wild description of 

 Thalaba, says : 



" Meantime with fuller reach and stronger swell 



Wave after wave advanced : 

 Each following billow lifted the last foam 

 That trembled on the sand with rainbow hues ; 

 The living flower, that rooted to the rock 



Late from the thinner element 

 Shrunk down within its purple stem to sleep, 



Now feels the water, and again 



Awakening, blossoms out 

 All its green anther-necks." 



" There are few things," says captain Basil Hall, 

 when in the West Indies, " more beautiful to look 

 upon than the corallines, when viewed through two 

 or three fathoms of clear still water. It is hardly 

 an exaggeration to assert, that the colours of the 



