224 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
lieved it contained not less than fifty living creatures. Channels 
had also been cut in the stone six inches deep, by stone-boring 
mollusks. When Capt. Basil Hall wrote a description of the 
corals in his ‘‘ Voyage to the Islands of Loo Choo,” which the 
author of ‘The Pelican Island” used as a text for his poem, he 
evidently supposed that corallum is the work of the ‘‘ worms of 
different lengths and colors” with which the bottom rock is 
“‘full,”—hence the great mistake which both authors made. 
We deem it no+ improbable that it will ultimately be discovered 
that corals, as well as sponges, can be artificially propagated; if 
so, we see no reason why the more valuable red varieties may not 
be successfully cultivated in the Bahama waters. The colonial 
government, at a small expense, can by wise legislation cause 
experiments looking to such a result to be made. The old world 
has colonized the new with men, choice live stock, delicious fruits 
and destructive insects—why should it not give us its superior 
sponges and corals? 
Referring the reader to the excellent work of Prof. Dana, upon 
“‘Corals and Coral Islands,” for full and complete information 
from a scientific standpoint upon the subject of this chapter, we 
take leave of the corals for the present, fully aware that we have 
hardly crossed the threshold where we would have been only too ~ 
happy, had we been able, to fully enter and thoroughly explore. 
