The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-01-18
CORAL FORMATIONS.

Hills have been leveled, vallies filed up, and
cities built, by the might of man, and his
works have been Justly considered as great and
nightly productions. But if man has built
proud cities, he may justly feel humbled in
comparing his works with the little coraline in
sects of the sea, who have built island in the
deep ocean, with 70 other material for their
walls than the matter held in solution by the
waters. Coral is stony product of the sea,
resembling the production of the garden, ri
valing trees and shrubs in the gracefulness and
delicacy of their forms. In olden times it was
believed that coral was petrifed vegetable
production, as it is well known that vegetation
could produce stately forests and minute plants;
and when it was first suggested that it was the
work of little jelly-like animals, by the nat
uralst Peysonnel, in 1851, scientific men pro
nounced the idea absurbed It is well known
that coral is the stony frames belonging to ccr-
aline insects, and piece of it may be said to
be composed of millions of their Skeletons
We have received large specimen of this
marine marble flora, sent to us by George E.
Harkncss, engineer of Fort Jefferson, Fla
It is of the kind found at the Tortugas Islands,
and is very beautiful, branching out into broad
leaves, rivalng in their thin tracery the works
of the most skilful scul ptors. Coral is princi-
pally composed of lime; the insects secret it
from the waters of the sea, and each gene
ration expires, Its successors continue the build
ing until it arises from the ocean as coral rock,
and islands. The operations of these marine
insects are principally confined the warmer
waters of the ocean, such as the Gulf of Flor
ida, and the Indian and Pacific Oceans, 1t is
remarkable that, at fifty miles back from the
sea coast. in the Carolinas, as perfect specimens
of coral are frequently dug from the mari pits,
as those obtained fresh from the sea- The
limestone of new Jersey, and of Missouri,
give evidence of their eoraline origin, those
af1ording proof that many extensive tracts of
this country were once unoer the waters of the
great deep, and that these little creatures were
the builders of many of the rocks and much of
the dry land. But the coral insects perform
another great Office, besides increasing the
boundaries of the land. 1t is well known that
silica, lime, magnesia, alumina, oxyde of iron
andsoluble other impurities are carried down in
to the ocean by the waters from rivers. The lit
tie coralines act the part of scavapgers of the
sea, as they secrete only the impurities and re-
fuse the salts of SODIUM, and thus they build
their houses from the very materials which
would otherwise accumulate and render the
ocean waters as bitter as those of the sea of
Sodom. The coral insects and marine she'll
fish store away the excess of lime water in the
sea, and tend to purify its waters, in the same
manner that trees and vegetation absorb car
bonic acid from the atmosphere. and kept it
pure for the welfare of man. 1t is thus that
the operations of nature are conducted upon
wise, simple, and sublime plan, by the great
Author of Creation.