54 BLUEFIELDS. 



colour, while alive ; other close-pored masses, of a 

 rounded form, are bright grass-green ; and huge round 

 brainstones {Meandrina) which are very numerous, 

 are of a dull olive-brown hue. The first two kinds 

 were easily broken, so that I detached large frag- 

 ments without difficulty ; but though touching them 

 for this purpose did not sensibly affect the hand, the 

 more tender skin of the thighs and legs was suscept- 

 ible of a stinging influence from the slightest contact; 

 and my leg, which was rudely scratched against one, 

 presently swelled up into a large tumour, very pain- 

 ful. The water in some parts was up to my neck, 

 and the rolling surge made it difficult to preserve my 

 footing. All were slimy to the touch ; but a very 

 branched and flexible kind, growing in a tuft of 

 numerous stems, springing from a common basal 

 point, and waving gracefully in the roll of the sea, — 

 was particularly slimy, and communicated to the 

 hands more of the remarkably strong nauseous smell, 

 which all living corals possess. Three or four living 

 Sea-fans I took, and also some soft bunches of a 

 plentiful Coralline. 



After this I waded out to the reef which runs along 

 parallel to the shore, at about a hundred yards' dis- 

 tance from it. The w'ater here was knee-deep. Many 

 small Corals were on the bottom, apparently alive, 

 of different species, some of which were very pretty. 

 On almost every specimen that we lifted there were 

 marine animals, parasitically lodged in the interstices. 

 Among them were two or three of a little Sepia, that 

 adhered with exceeding tenacity to the coral, and 

 contracted its arms so as to lie in the hollows, resist- 



