April, 1836. 



CORAL-EATING FISH. 



553 



ing property is not new, though it has scarcely been suf- 

 ficiently remarked on. M. Quoy* mentions it, and I have 

 heard of stinging corals in the West Indies. In the East 

 Indian sea a stinging sea-weed also is found. 



There was another and quite distinct kind of coral, which 

 was remarkable from the change of colour, which it under- 

 went shortly after death ; when alive it was of a honey- 

 yellow, but some hours after being taken out of water, it 

 became as black as ink. I may just mention, as partly con- 

 nected with the above subjects, that there are here two 

 species of fish, of the genus Sparus, which exclusively feed 

 on coral. Both are coloured of a splendid bluish-green, 

 one living invariably in the lagoon, and the other amongst 

 the outer breakers. Mr. Liesk assured us that he had 

 repeatedly seen whole shoals grazing with their strong bony 

 jaws on the tops of the coral branches. t I opened the in- 

 testines of several, and found them distended with a yellowish 

 calcareous matter. These fish, together with the lithopha- 

 gous shells and nereidous animals, which perforate every 

 block of dead coral, must be very efficient agents in pro- 

 ducing the finest kind of mud, and this, when derived from 

 such materials, appears to be the same with chalk. 



April 12th. — In the morning, we stood out of the La- 

 goon. I am glad we have visited these islands : such forma- 

 tions surely rank high amongst the wonderful objects of this 

 world. It is not a wonder, which at first strikes the eye of 

 the body, but rather, after reflection, the eye of reason. We 

 feel surprised, when travellers relate accounts of the vast 

 extent of certain ancient ruins ; but how utterly insignificant 

 are the greatest of these, when compared to the pile of stone 

 here accumulated by the work of various minute animals. 

 Throughout the whole group of islands, every single atom,J 



* Freycinet's Voyage, vol. i., p. 597. 



t It has sometimes been thought {vide Quoy in Freycinet's Voyage), 

 that coral-eating fish were poisonous ; such certainly was not the case with 

 these Spari. 



X I exclude, of course, the soil which has been brought here in vessels 



