XXill 
when fished from these madreporous rocks, have been 
found to possess an insufferable stench ; this may be 
occasioned by the Polypi being in a state of decompo- 
sition, as their fetidness is then sufficiently powerful to 
cause vertigos, and even suspended animation ; as I 
myself experienced whilst preparing the Antipathes 
Myriophyila, which a friend had sent me from Nice. 
Sometimes they wholly envelope in a calcareous 
coating the vegetables of the sea, and, in obstructing 
the pores necessary for their aliment, cause them to 
perish in an animated prison. Innumerable instances 
of their power of annoyance might be adduced, 
such as choking up harbours, causing shipwrecks, 
&c. &c. 
But He who formed the Universe, created nothing 
in vain ! His works all harmonize to blessings, un- 
bounded by the mightiest or most minute of His cre- 
ation. Each day displays to the reflecting, new proofs 
of His wisdom in new developements of His plans, 
and gives fresh force to the conviction that our 
ignorance alone must obscure our view, when we 
cannot comprehend His aim of eternal good. 
On land, the vegetable tribes absorb the carbonic 
acid our inhalements have created, and return us the 
life-giving oxygen. In the bosom of the deep, the 
Polypi absorb the calcareous salts brought from the 
