THE SEA PEN. 117 



philosophic investigator of nature. He beholds 

 them like submarine forests, stretching out their 

 branches in strange contortions but all motionless ; 

 he sees them resembling waving plumes, fans of 

 network, in clustered masses, gemmed as if with 

 flowers of richest tints ; or forming sea caves, on 

 which the blue water sleeps tranquilly. Nor are 

 they excluded from among the materials which 

 man applies to common purposes. At Djeddah, in 

 Arabia, and on many other parts of the coast of the 

 Red Sea, the houses are constructed with blocks of 

 beautiful madrepore. In the Indian isles, as well 

 as in those of the Eastern Ocean, madrepores are 

 used for the manufacture of lime. At Martinique, 

 men drag them for that purpose from the bottom 

 of the sea. 



" There, too, we see the living pile ascend 

 The mausoleum of its architects, 

 Still dying upwards as their labours closed ; 

 Slime the material, but the slime was turn'd 

 To adamant by their petrific touch ; 

 Trail were their frames, ephemeral their lives, 

 Their masonry imperishable. All 

 Life's needful functions, food, exertion, rest, 

 By nice economy of Providence, 

 Were overruled to carry on the process, 

 Which out of water brought forth solid rock." 



" To get an idea of the nature and structure of 

 an individual coral reef," says Mr. Jukes, " let the 

 reader fancy to himself a great submarine mound of 

 rock, composed of the fragments and detritus of 

 corals and shells, compacted together into a soft, 



