Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-08-30
CORAL REEFS.
How the Little Insects Build Islands il
the Sea.

Among all the varied productions OF
living nature none can perhaps vie III
respect of interest with those of the
coral animal. From our boyhood' $
days we have been accustomed to read
of coral islands. but it is to be feared
that many of the descriptions given of
these structures in the tales we pored
over in our youth must be ranked more
as successful ventures in the line of flc-
ton than in that of actual science.
Yet the scientific side of the story of
coral IS quite us wondrous in its way as
anything which the fertile brain of the
story writer is able to conceive.
Every one is familiar, from visit to
a natural history museum, with the
general appearance of coral. There
are, of course, very many different
species of structures included under
this common name.
We see great masses of stony hard
ness assuming fantastic shapes, and
constituting in their way Veritable
rocks Others are of a more delicate
description, and may assume the form
of miniature organ pipes, while the red
coral itself, so much valued for the
manufacture of articles of jewelry, rep
resents the opposite extreme from the
coarse linly masses referred to. l may
explode at the outset an erroneous idea
regarding the red coral. This coral is
practically confined to the Mediter-
ranean sed, and grows in a small tree
like form.
The idea that islands formed of red
coral exist is a piece of pure fiction, and
those corals which more especially con-
Germ us here as the builders of reefs are
represented by the coarse stony masses
familiar in museums, but also often
used in the construction of grottoes and
ferneries.
1t is not 50 very long ago in the his
tory of science that coral was discov-
cred to be the work of an animal. The
ancients regarded coral, and especially
the red coral, which they knew best, as
the work of the marine plant.
Latin poets tell US of the coral plant,
which is soft in it's native waters, but
becomes hard when drawn up from the
sea and exposed to the action of the
air. A young French student, Peyson-
mel, discovered the fact that coral was
a substance represented by the secre-
ton of an animal. He described accu-
Idlely tllouSii tie Mill VI animal W IllCD
makes coral.
He compared this animal to the sea
anemone, which we find in every rocky
hollow around our own coasts. In so
doing he was perfectly correct, for the
coral animal is really kind of insect
and familiar deniZen of the seaside.
There is, however, this difference be-
tween the latter and the coral animal.
The former, as a rule, is a single ami
NAL: the corals are usually compound.
That is to say, one coral animal gives
rise to another by process of budding,
and in this way a mass of coral is seen
to be the work not of one animal, but
of many hundreds of thousands, pro-
duced as a kind of colony in the way
just described. 1t is this power of in
crease by budding which enables corals
to construct reefs of great magnitude.
Possessing what is practically an I'M
limited power of increase, they succeed
in producing enormous masses of rocky
substance, and we must not forget that
every coral animal has the power of
producing eggs.
Each egg which comes to full devel-
opment settles down, gives origin to
one coral animal, and, as this in turn
buds like its forefathers, a new colony
is thus commenced.
In this way, when the coral animals
themselves die they leave behind them
what poet has well called 1.-The inn
perishable masonry of the sea- The
power of budding is not, of course, linn
tied to corals. We are familiar enough
with it in the case of plants, but many
other animals besides corals grow into
colonies by the budding process.
Corals can also add to the number in
a colony through another process,
namely. simple division of the body.
We see how the body simply divided in
two gives rise to two individuals, and
thus adds to the numerical strength of
the mass.
The conditions under which corals
live and grow are very simple They
may be summed up in the words-a
certain heat and acertain death. The
question of heat naturally settles the
range of the corals in space, that is.
determines their geography in the ex-
listing earth.
The reef-building corals do not -four
ish in seas where the water is below
66 degrees or thereby of fahrenheit. 1t
will therefore be seen that it is only in
tropical regions where we may expect
n find tho f,,Ilacf 1axala~,,o,,&