THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. 23 
by inch, is as fascinating as the story of the building 
of any fairy palace in the days of old. Read all this, 
Lagoon of still-water inside the encircling 
coral reef. Coral polyp. 
FIG. 3. Coral island of the Pacific. 
and then if you have no coral of your own to examine, 
go to some museum and see the beautiful specimens 
in the glass cases there, and think that they have been 
built up under the rolling surf by the tiny jelly ani- 
mals ; and then coral will become a real living thing 
to you, and you will love the thoughts it awakens. 
But people often ask, what is the use of learning 
all this ? If you do not feel by this time how delight- 
ful it is to fill your mind with beautiful pictures of 
nature, perhaps it would be useless to say more. But 
in this age of ours, when restlessness and love of ex- 
citement pervade so many lives, is it nothing to be 
