CORAL ANIMALCULES. 
169 
" 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. 
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 th& 
Cape of Good Hope they have been obtained at a depth of 100 
fathoms. 
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