The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-10-04
ISLANDS OF CORAL
True Ones Only in the Pacific
 and Indian Oceans.
THE GREAT BARRIER ATOLL.

This Famous Coral Reef, Off the Aus 1 traiian Coast, Is the Largest In the World and Extends For Thousands of MiIeS-Bernauda's Worm Tubes. | There are no true coral islands in the 1 Atlantic The coral Islands of the Pa 1 cific and Indian oceans are very dis 1 tfnct from the so called coral islands
 of Bermuda and the West Indies. 1 True coral islands. or atolls, are | formed by corals building upward on | a submerged reef or peak until the growth reaches the surface of the sea or so near it that broken pieces of coral,
 drift, sand. etc, accumulate and in
 time build an exposed islet- At other
 times the coral reef is raised above the
 water by volcanic action. The Pacific
 reefs are often circular or semicircular
 in form. and such reefs are known as
 atolls.
 The largest coral reef is the Great
 Barrier reef of Australia, which ex-
 tends for several thousand miles.
 The coral islands of the Atlantic are
 formed by wave bro&en shells and bits
 of coral which have become solidified
 and fossilized by chemical action and
 age This material is known as aeo-
 liam limestone and after exposure to
 
 ble. but where freshly broken or cut it is very soft and can be chiseled and sawed into blocks for building pur- poses.
 Many of the West Indian coral fs- lands are partly composed of fossil coral reefs which have been raised far above the present sea level by the vol canic uplift of the rocks to which they were attached. Such coral reefs, says the. American Boy, are often found hundreds of feet above sea level and in places are found alternating with layers of lava, showing that the is- lands have been raised and submerged several times in the past.
 The ato11-l1ke reefs in Bermuda are not coral at all, but ere formed of in numerable worm tubes Belonging to certain annelids. These worm tubes are often thickly 1ncrusted with other 1 growths. such az coraline, seaweeds, 1 bryozoa, c6rals, etc, and thus have the l appearance of being composed of real | coral
 Corals. whenS alive, are not white, but l are of many beautiful and vivid shades of green, pink, red, brown, yellow. law ender or orange
 A mass of living cora1s, when seen 1 the wonderfully clear waters of the tropical sea, is 8 very beautiful l and brilliantly colored sight There 1 are a great many kinds of coral Some l are rounded and massive and are known as <sbrAn corals." Others are broad and spreading or branched, while others are dellrately formed and very brittle. Others are covered with rose shaped or star shaped markings and are called .4rose'' or "star corals''
 The openings or indentationS in any | coral mark the spot where coral ami nal lived. The animals or 'polyps'' are very similar to sea anemones in form and have numerous deshy tenta- cles, which may be drawn in out of sight when danger threatens. The en- tire coral is covered with animal mat ter when alive, and it is only after all Is bleached that the white coral ap- pears. All the corals mentioned are znown as -stony corals."
 Another very large group of corals is -he horny corals." or Gorgo11fas- The well known sea fans,' as well as the red coral- used for jewelry. belong, to his group
 Corals are not all confined to tropical seas. There are numerous species found as far north as the Grand banks of Newfoundland and Greenland, but hese are not the reef building species, put belong to groups inhabiting the leep sea. One species is quite com non on the coast of New England, but Bermuda marks the northern limit of eef building species in the Atlantic Exchange.