20 lftature'0 



animal life. Here is another. Whoever has 

 visited the Bermudas has seen an island 

 wholly formed of what is called coral rock. 

 Coral is a structure produced by a peculiar 

 form of sea animal that gathers up the calca- 

 reous or lime-like matter floating in the sea 

 water, and builds a house of it in which to live 

 during the little lifetime that is allotted to 

 him. When he dies his children do not 

 occupy the old home, but build a new one, 

 which is a superstructure planted upon the old 

 one as a foundation. This process of growth 

 sometimes takes the form of a tree or plant, 

 and coral trees grow upon trees and plants 

 upon plants, until a structure is erected hav- 

 ing its foundation upon the bottom of the 

 ocean, that finally reaches up until it rises 

 above the surface of the water; and here 

 after through years the water has brought sea- 

 weed and drift to decay and form soil, and the 

 birds have brought seeds and fertilization, and 

 vegetable life is prospering another animal 

 called man builds his home upon it. The ma- 

 terial that the coral is formed of is substan- 

 tially the same as that we find in the minute 

 shells of the limestone rocks. 



The great chalk cliffs that are found on the 

 coasts of the English channel are the work of 

 a sea animal microscopic in size. At one 

 time it was a question among scientists how 

 these chalk cliffs were formed, but when the 



