CORAL ANIMALCULES. 



169 



• c In some parts of the sea," says Mantell, " the 

 eye perceives nothing but a bright sandy plain at 

 bottom, extending many hundred miles, but in the 

 Red Sea the whole bed of this extensive basin of 

 water is absolutely a forest of submarine plants and 

 corals. Here are sponges, madrepores, corals, fun- 

 giae, and other polyparia, with fuci, algae, and all 

 the variety of marine vegetation covering every 

 part of the bottom, and presenting the appearance of 

 a submarine garden of the most exquisite verdure, 

 and enamelled with animal forms resembling, and 

 even surpassing in splendid and gorgeous colour- 

 ing, the most celebrated parterres of the East. 



Ehrenberg, the distinguished German naturalist, 

 whose labours have so greatly advanced our knowl- 

 edge of the infusoria, was so struck with the mag- 

 nificent spectacle presented by the polyparia in 

 the Red Sea, that he exclaimed with enthusiasm, 

 I Where is the paradise of flowers that can rival in 

 variety and beauty these living wonders of the 

 ocean'? Some have compared the appearance to 

 beds of tulips or dahliahs ; and, in truth, the large 

 fungiae, with their crimson disks and purple and 

 yellow tentacula, bear no slight resemblance to the 

 latter."— Vol. ii., p. 486. 



Coral reefs, however, are by no means the ex- 

 clusive work of zoophytes, for we find imbedded in 

 them a great variety of shells, such as oysters, 

 clams, muscles, echini, together with the skeletons 

 of fishes. The conversion of coral reefs into islands 

 is effected in the following manner. The reefs, 

 which just raise themselves above the level of the 

 sea, are usually of a circular or oval form, and sur- 

 rounded by a deep and often unfathomable ocean. 

 These, which are supposed to be built on the verge 



not form solid masses, live at great depths. Off Cape Horn 

 they have been brought up in 50 fathoms of water, and near the 

 Cape of Good Hope they have been obtained at a depth of 100 

 fathoms. 



o 



