LOW LIFE m THE SEA. 



73 



is slow, because you 



must place your jar under the water. The instant of tran- 

 sit while you lift the coral from his natural home would 

 otherwise be sufficient to kill him. 



7. Having arranged his working materials, Mr. Agassiz 

 passed weeks in studying these minute creatures. He had 

 microscopes, one or two assistants, and an artist, so that the 

 work went on with a certain rapidity. But under the most 

 favorable circumstances the progress 

 must wait the moods 

 of these capricious lit- 

 tle creatures, who will 

 hide themselves for 

 hours, drawing in all 

 their soft parts, and clos- 

 ing themselves against 

 investigation. One day 

 lie sat watching a mass 

 of living porites, which 

 form the foundation of 

 the reef. A specimen 

 of this is shown in the 

 figure. Every spot on 

 the surface marks a sep- 

 arate individual, while 

 the lines disposed about 

 it like a star indicate the feelers, 

 ingly small, scarcely larger than the head of a pin. 



8. On this occasion Mr. Agassiz had been looking for 

 a long time with a magnifying-glass at the minute creat- 

 ures forming this singular community, when suddenly he 

 saw a little, round, yellowish object — so small that it would 

 scarcely have been noticed without the magnifier — pro- 

 trude from the mouth of one of them. It was a new 

 feature ; he had never observed anything of the kind be- 

 fore, and he watched it with intense curiosity. It ad- 



Coral Porite. 



The animals are exceed- 



