70 HANDY BOOK OP 



island. St. Colimiba knew its value when he constructed 

 a cathedral in Iona. The cement employed by his work- 

 men was formed of lime calcined from sea-shells, and made 

 into rough mortar, with a large proportion of coarse gravel, 

 and fragments of white coral, which abounds along the 

 shores. And so strong is this cement, that more readily 

 might the stones be broken than forced asunder. Yet the 

 Diversified Melobesia is delicate in its formation, and 

 scarcely might the looker-on conjecture that latent powers 

 were concealed in its irregularly-lobed fronds. Those 

 fronds, when thrown upon the shore, become bleached in 

 the sunbeams, but when newly dredged, they are of a 

 reddish purple. The elegant Lima tenera nestles among 

 them, and, like the builders who wrought in the cathedral 

 of Icolmkill, employs small pieces of detached coral in con- 

 structing his submarine grotto. And wondrously is the 

 grotto wrought ; for the Lima, its inhabitant, is not only 

 a mason, but a rope-spinner, a tapestry-weaver, and a 

 plasterer. Each of these dissimilar occupations is required ; 

 for were the creature merely an adept in the mason's craft, 

 he might not cause the fragments of coral to adhere. 

 Cordage, therefore, is required to bind together the angular 

 pieces ; and this cordage he readily spins, although its 

 mode of spinning is among the secrets of the deep. Men 

 require hands with which to produce cordage, but the lima 

 does without them, and contrives to intertwine the yarn 

 among innumerable bits of coralline till they are bound 

 together. This habitation is rough externally, and there- 

 fore better fitted to elude the enemy ; but within, the case 

 is otherwise. The walls are beautifully smooth, for the 

 yarn is woven into tapestry, and all interstices are filled 

 with lime, till the whole resembles fine plaster- work, not 

 unlike the patent Intonaco of Mrs. Marshall. And thus the 

 ingenious inhabitant dwells securely amid the waters, in a 

 grotto lined with tapestry, where no jutting points may 

 injure his tiny form. Tapestry, as a covering for walls, 



