GARDEN OF CORAL 131 



the style and demeanour of a ferocious monster, ready at a 

 moment's notice to cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war. 

 Another hides itself as a rugged nodule of moss-covered 

 stone ; its limbs so artfully stowed away that detection 

 would be impossible did it not occasionally betray itself by 

 a stealthy movement. The pretty cowrie, lemon-coloured 

 and grey and brown, throws over its shining shoulders a 

 shawl of the hue of the rock on which it crawls about, grey 

 or brown or tawny, with white specks and dots which make 

 for invisibility — a thin filmy shawl of exquisite sensitive- 

 ness. Touch it ever so lightly, and the helpless creature, 

 discerning that its disguise has been penetrated, withdraws 

 it, folding it into its shell, and closes its door against 

 expected attack. It may feebly fall off the rock, and 

 simulating a dead and empty shell, lie motionless until 

 danger is past. Then again it will drape itself in its 

 garment of invisibility and slide cautiously along in search 

 of its prey. Under the loose rocks and detached lumps of 

 coral for one live there will be scores of dead shells. The 

 whole field is strewn with the relics of perpetual conflict, 

 resolving and being resolved into original elements. We 

 talk of the strenuous life of men in cities. Go to a coral 

 reef and see what the struggle for existence really means. 

 The very bulwarks of limestone are honeycombed by 

 tunnelling shells. A glossy black, torpedo-shaped creature 

 cuts a tomb for itself in the hard lime. Though it may 

 burrow inches deep with no readily visible inlet, cutting and 

 grinding its cavity as it develops in size and strength, yet 

 it is not safe. Fate follows in insignificant guise, drills a 

 tiny hole through its shell, and the toilsomely excavated 

 refuge becomes a sepulchre. Even in the fastness of the 

 coral " that grim sergeant death is strict in his arrest." All 

 is strife — war to the death. If eternal vigilance is the price 

 of liberty among men, what quality shall avert destruction 

 where insatiable cannibalism is the rule. There is but one 

 creature that seems to make use of the debris of the 

 battlefield — the hermit crab {Ccenobitd), which but half 

 armoured must to avert extermination fit itself into 



