5.3 FLORIDA EEEFS. 



increase. Here, as elsewhere, destruction and construction go hand in hand, 

 and the materials broken or worn away fiom one part of the reef help to 

 build it up elsewhere. The corals forming the reef are not the only beings 

 that find their home there: many other animals, — shells, worms, crabs, 

 star-fishes, sea-urchins, — establish themselves upon it, work their way into 

 its interstices, and seek a shelter in every little hole and cranny made by 

 the irregularities of its surface. In the Zoological Museum at Cambridge 

 there are some large fragments of coral reef which give one a good idea of 

 the populous aspect that such a reef would present, could we see it as it 

 actually exists beneath the water. Some of these fragments consist of a 

 succession of terraces, as it were, in which are many little miniature 

 caves, where may still be seen the shells or sea-urchins which made their 

 snug and sheltered homes in these recesses of the reef 



We must not consider the reef as a solid, massive structure throughout 

 The compact kinds of corals, giving strength and solidity to the wall, may 

 be compared to the larger trees in a forest, giving it shade and density ; 

 but beneath these larger trees grow all kinds of trailing vines, ferns, and 

 messes, wild-flowers, and low shrubs, filling the spaces between them with 

 a thick underbrush. The coral reef also has its underbrush of the lighter, 

 branching, more brittle kinds, filling its interstices, and fringing the summit 

 and the sides with their delicate, graceful forms. Such an intricate under- 

 brush of coral growth affords an excellent retreat for many animals that 

 like its protection better than exposure to the open sea, just as many land- 

 animals prefer the close and shaded woods to the open plain. A forest is 

 not more thickly peopled with birds, squirrels, martens, and the like, than is 

 the coral reef with a variety of animals which do not contribute in any Avay 

 to its growth, but find shelter in its crevices, or in its near neighborhood. 



But these larger animals are not the only ones that haunt the forest. 

 There is a host of parasites besides, principally insects and their larvse, 

 which bore their way into the very heart of the tree, making their home 

 in the bark and pith, and not the less numerous because hidden from sic-ht 

 These also have their counterparts in the reef, where numbers of boring 

 shells and marine worms work their way into the solid substance of the 

 wall, piercing it Avith holes in cyery direction, till large portions become 

 insecure, and the next storm suffices to break off the fragments so loosened. 

 Once detached, they are tossed about in the water, crumbled into coral 

 sand, crushed, often ground to powder by the friction of the rocks and the 

 constant action of the sea. 



