54 
BLUEFIELDS. 
colour, while alive ; other close-pored masses, of a 
rounded form, are bright grass-green ; and huge round 
brainstones {Meandrind) which are very numerous, 
are of a dull olive-brown hue. The first two kinds 
were easily broken, so that I detached large frag- 
ments without difficulty ; hut though touching them 
for this purpose did not sensibly affect the hand, the 
more tender skin of the thighs and legs was suscept- 
ible of a stinging influence from the slightest contact; 
and my leg, which was rudely scratched against one, 
presently swelled up into a large tumour, very pain- 
ful. The water in some parts was up to my neck, 
and the rolling surge made it difficult to preserve my 
footing. All were slimy to the touch ; but a very 
branched and flexible kind, growing in a tuft of 
numerous stems, springing from a common basal 
point, and waving gracefully in the roll of the sea, — 
was particularly slimy, and communicated to the 
hands more of the remarkably strong nauseous smell, 
which all living corals possess. Three or four living 
Sea-fans I took, and also some soft bunches of a 
plentiful Coralline. 
After this I waded out to the reef which runs along 
parallel to the shore, at about a hundred yards’ dis- 
tance from it. The water here was knee-deep. Many 
small Corals were on the bottom, apparently alive, 
of different species, some of which were very pretty. 
On almost every specimen that we lifted there were 
marine animals, parasitically lodged in the interstices. 
Among them were two or three of a little Sepia, that 
adhered with exceeding tenacity to the coral, and 
contracted its arms so as to lie in the hollows, resist- 
