AN UNCOUNTABLE HOST. 141 



lowly animals would soon have become disintegrated 

 and have disappeared, leaving nothing but their frail 

 and delicate frameworks of limestone to accumulate in 

 ever-growing thickness. Many even of these relics 

 might eventually be resolved into mere formless mud 

 or ooze, and their tale would be increased by the constant 

 addition of the dead remains of the bottom-feeding 

 animals to which we referred above. But enough, perhaps, 

 has been said to indicate the origin of the marine deposits 

 which underlie the coral capping of our islands. 



