

Corals, Worms, etc. 



are the corals of warmer seas. Now the corals, without 

 knowing it maybe, are great architects. The great B&rrier 

 Reef, one thousand two hundred miles in length and fifty 

 miles in breadth, is the sole handiwork of these little 

 creatures. For our purpose let us look upon the coral as 

 a minute sea-anemone. Each individual forms a little cup- 

 like resting-place with a solid base ; in this shelter the coral 

 lives. As growth takes place, the coral adds more and 

 more to its home, for it only dwells on the ends of the 

 stony branches. In this way enormous coral deposits are 

 built up. 



" Animals cease not to pay their filial debts. We see 

 a multitudinous life rising like a mist in the sea, countless 

 millions of microscopic creatures often enclosed in beauti- 

 ful shells of flint and lime ; myriads of them are always 

 being killed at the surface by vicissitudes of temperature 

 and the like ; they sink gently through the miles of water 

 to find a grave in the abysmal ooze. The submarine 

 volcano top, which did not reach the surface, is slowly 

 raised by the rainfall of these countless minutiae. Inch by 

 inch for myriads of years the snow-drift of dead shells 

 forms a patient preparation for the coral island. The 

 tiniest, hardly bigger than the wind-blown dust, form when 

 added together the strongest foundation in the world. 

 The vast whale-skeleton falls, but melts away till only the 

 ear-bones are left. Of the ruthless shark^nothing remains 

 but the teeth. The sea-butterflies with their frail shells 

 are mightier than these, and perhaps the microscopic 

 atoms are strongest of all. The pile slowly rises, and the 

 exquisite fragments are cemented into a stable foundation 

 for the future city of corals. 



" At length, when the height at which they can live -is 

 reached, coral germs move themselves to the sides of the 

 raised mound and begin a new life on the shoulders of 

 death. They spread in lightly coloured festoons and have 

 often been likened to flowers. They surround their soft 

 bodies with strong shells of carbonate of lime, obtained by 

 T 289 



