624 KANSAS CITY J? E VIEW OF SCIENCE. 



subject with numerous drawings, which materially aided comprehension. He- 

 said that he had selected the subject because of its great popular and scientific 

 interest, and because he had personally investigated it, having spent a whole 

 winter in Florida and the adjacent keys for that purpose. The matter was of 

 great interest because of the strange forms and gorgeous coloring of the animals- 

 by which these reefs were made; on account of the gem-like beauty of the islands- 

 formed by their agency ; on account of the large quantity of land which had been 

 added to the habitable globe, wholly through the influence of the coral animals, 

 now inhabited by hundreds and thousands of people, and which would not exist 

 but for these creatures; because of the fact that the largest body of land which 

 has been added to the habitable globe had been in the territory of the United 

 States — the peninsula and keys of Florida, and, finally, on account of the dangers 

 to navigation arising from coral reefs. 



THE FLORIDA REEFS. 



Coral reefs are peculiarly dangerous to navigation because of their rising: 

 abruptly, so that though the sounding line may show 6,000 feet of water within 

 half a mile, the reef may rear its perpendicular wall for the ship's destruction. 

 The most dangerous point for navigation upon the face of the earth is the reefs 

 of Florida. There are more wrecks upon that coast than in any other portion of 

 the world. The largest town in Florida, Key West, is built upon a coral reef, 

 on account of the frequency of wrecks upon the coast. If it were not for the 

 wrecking business the town would not exist. With the exception of cocoa-nuts 

 there is absolutely nothing raised upon the reef. The wreckers came first to prey 

 upon the wrecks, then came merchants to prey upon the wreckers, next lawyers 

 and doctors to prey upon both classes, and finally the clergymen to pray for all. 

 [Laughter.] The subject of corals was, also, the Professor said, of scientific in- 

 terest, because in these coral reefs we had the proofs of the vast oscillations and 

 variations in the earth's crust, on a scale of which we have no other evidences at 

 all. 



A very wide spread misunderstanding exists as to the manner in which reefs 

 are formed, one which has entered into the public mind, and of which it is almost 

 impossible to dispossess the public mind. The idea is that these animals are lit- 

 tle insects; that they build like ants and bees do, and when they are alarmed they 

 disappear into their little burrows, and these reefs are accumulations of milhons- 

 of these little insects in generation after generation. I shall show that there is- 

 not the semblance of truth in this idea. 



The Professor then explained that the coral animal is a polyp belonging to 

 the group of radiata; that it consists of limestone deposits in the shape of a hol- 

 low cylinder with top and bottom disks, surmounted with tentacles, containing a 

 stomach and enveloped with gelatinous organic matter. The tentacles or arms 

 are provided each with a mouth for the absorption of food. The coral is coralline 

 limestone after the gelatinous organic envelope is decayed and removed. The 

 animals which build reefs are not much larger than pin-heads. The development 



