Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-11-02
How Coral Islands Grow.

The story of the little builders who lay
the foundation of the great islands under
the waters of the ocean has often been told.
But how do the islands grow after these
walls rise to the waters surface Good
Words for the Young tells how this is done.
and about one of the curious helpers:
Ofcourse the coral polypes cannot build
above the high tide mark; but the surt
which beats upon them, piles up their bro
ken fragments just as sea beach is piled
up, and hammers them together with that
water hammer, which is heavier and stron- :
ger than any you have ever seen in o
smith forge. And then, as is the fashion
of lime the whole mass sets and becomes
hard as you may see mortar set; and SO
you have low island few feet above the
sea. The sea birds come to it.and rest and
build; and seeds are foated thither from
| far lands; and among them almost always
the cocoanut, which loves to grow by the
sea shore, and groves of cocoa palms grow
up from the lonely isle. Then, perhaps,
trees or bushes are drifted thitber before
the trade wind; and entangled in their
roots, are the seeds of other plants, and
eggs or cocoons of insects, and so few
flowers, butterflies, and peetles, set up for
themselves on the new land. And then a
rird Or two, caught in storm and blown
away to sec, finds shelter in the cocoa grove;
and so little new world sets up, in which,
you must remember always, there are no
four-footed beasts, nor snakes, nor lizards,
frogs, nor any animals that cannot cross the
sea. And on some of those islands they
may live (indeed there is every reason
to believe have lived) SO long
that some of them have changed
their forms, according to the laws of Madam
How, who sooner or later fits each thing
exactly for the place in which it is meant
to live, till upon some of them you may find
such strange and unique forms as the
famous cocoanut, which learned men call
burgus latro. A great crab he is, and walks
upon the tips of his toes foot high above
the ground. And because he las often
nothing to eat but cocoanuts, he has learn
ed to eat, and after fashion which it would
puzzle you to initiate. The sailors used to
say that he climbed up the stems Of the CO.
coauut trees, and pulled the fruit down fol
himself; but that, it seems, is not quite
true. What he really does is this: wher
: he finds fallen cocoanut, he begins tearing
away the thick husk and fiber will
his strong claws; and he knows perfectly
: well which end to tear it from, nam ely
from the end where the three eyeholes are
which you call the monkeys face, out O
,
tree would burst forth. And when he hal
got to the eye-holes he hammers through
one of them with the point of his heav.
claw. So far so good; but how is our trient
to get the meat? He cannot put his clav
in. He has no proboscis like butterh,
to insert and suck with. He is as far OF
from his dinner as the fox was when tn
stork offered him feast in the long-necl
jar. What then, DO you think he does
, He tnrns himself round, he puts in a pal
,, of his hind pincers, which are very thin
: and with them scoops the meat of the &C
coanut, and SO puts his dinner into bi
month with his hind feet. And even tn
cocoanut husk he does not waste; for he live
in deep burrows, which he makes like rat
) bit, and being a luxurious crab and liking
, to sleep soft in spite of his hard shell, h
? lines them with a quantity of cocoanu
? fiber, picked out clean and fine, just as
:. he was going to make cocoanut mating c
! it. Aud being also clean crab, as 1 hop
: you are clean little boy, he goes down t
. the sea every night to have his bath. an
. moisten his gills, and so lives happy ail hi
; days, and gets SO fat in his old age that b
carries about his body nearly quart {
: pure Oil.