In the tropical seas they are said to be much larger, and so fierce as sometimes to attack boats and drag them under water. We are told that in the Indian waters, such things have actually happened, and in certain localities the boatmen always keep themselves supplied with axes to cut off the arms of these monsters, in case of an attack.

Their remarkable spirit, as well as their strength, is evinced by an adventure which Mr. Beale, an Englishman, had with one of them among the rocks of the Bonin Islands, where he had gone ashore to seek for shells. As he was moving about, he was suddenly arrested by seeing at his feet a most extraordinary looking animal, crawling toward the surf, which it had only just left. It was creeping on its eight legs, which, from their soft and flexible nature, bent considerably under the weight of its body, so that it was lifted by the efforts of its limbs only a small distance from the rocks. It appeared much alarmed at seeing him, and made every effort to escape. A moment after, the apparently enraged animal lifted its head with its large projecting eyes, and loosing its hold of

A SAVAGE FOE.

the rocks, suddenly sprang upon Mr. Beale, and clung to him by means of its suckers with great power, endeavoring to get its beak, which could now be seen between the roots of its arms, in a position to bite. A sensation of horror pervaded his whole frame, when he found that this hideous animal had fixed itself to him so firmly. Its cold, slimy grasp was extremely sickening; and he loudly called to the captain, who was at some distance, to come and release him from his dangerous assailant. The captain quickly came, and soon released him, by destroying his tormentor with the boat-knife, which he accomplished by cutting away portions at a time.

The presence of this monster in the tropical seas often adds a fresh

danger to the ordinary perils of pearl-diving. It has been known to attack men under water, and numerous instances are recorded of its fatal assault. Once within its powerful grasp, the situation is extremely critical. It has no mercy on its victim, and when it throws about him its immense arms he is in the jaws of an embrace that means death. The natives are compelled to arm themselves with the most effective weapons against a foe so ferocious and hard to overcome.

The ammonites, a curious genera of mollusks, become quite special in the secondary epoch, and disappear altogether before our age. They are characteristic of a very early period, and each zone is characterized by its peculiar species. The name is taken from the resemblance of the shell to the ram's-horn ornaments which decorated the front of the temple of Jupiter Ammon and the bas-re

liefs of the statues of this pagan deity. They were cephalopode mollusks with circular shells, winding in spirals on the same plane, and divided into a series of chambers.

The animal only occupied the outer cavities of the shell; all the others were void. A tube issuing from the first traversed all the cavities. This enabled the animal to rise to the surface, or sink to the bottom, for the ammonite could at pleasure fill the chambers

THE ANCIENT AMMONITE.

or expel the water, thus rendering it lighter or heavier as occasion required. The nautilus of our seas is provided with the same curious. organization, and reminds us forcibly of the ammonites of geological times. Shells are the only traces which remain of the ammonites. Like a little sculler, the ammonite floated on the surface of the water; like the nautilus, the shell was an animated skiff. What a curious aspect these primitive seas must have presented, covered by myriads of these mollusks of all sizes, rowing about in eager pursuit of their prey!

CHAPTER III.

THE WORKMEN OF THE SEA.

The Ocean a Nursery of Life-World-Makers-Destruction of the Weaker Marine Tribes-Half Plants and Half Animals-Graceful Forms and Brilliant HuesFlowers of Ocean—Astounding Multitude of Infusoria—Mountains Formed from Tiny Shells-Islands Built by Coral Insects-Magnificent Paris Built by Animalcules-Coral Forests in the Sea - Coral Islands Hundreds of Miles in ExtentShips in Danger-The Birth of New Lands-The Marvelous Actinia-Plants of Living Stone-Myriad Forms of Life in the Sea-Depths of Amazing SplendorThe Humming Birds of the Ocean.

THE circulation of the ocean, its phosphorescence, and the tints of color belonging to certain seas, make known but imperfectly what can be accomplished by the incalculable numbers, the prodigious fecundity, and the devouring activity of the minute animals, scarcely perceptible individually, with which it teems. Yet geology demonstrates that it was they which laid the foundation of animal life in that immense cradle, that inexhaustible "nursery" as Maury calls it; it is they which maintain a never-varying identity in the composition of its waters, absorbing and changing the mineral and organic properties with which these are incessantly loaded.

There are some which serve as the food of stronger and superior species; these, in their turn, nourish the fish and crustaceans, which are themselves devoured by far larger fishes. There are others which are indefatigable architects.

A myriad laborers ply their task,

And what it tends to never ask.

The work how grand! the means how small!
What wondrous order reigns o'er all!

They construct the fantastic edifices that from the depths of ocean. mount to its very surface, and spread afar, ramify, and terminate in coral reefs and islands. Michelet calls them "world-makers." Others, finally, by dying, have accumulated at certain points their skeleton wrecks, and have formed numerous banks, and shallows, and entire beds of deposit, where the geologist to-day may study these first-born of creation. These infusoria, these polypes, were preceded, in the primeval sea, in the universal ocean, by vegetables properly so called, similar to those which, at the present time, are met with in the torrid zone.

These vegetable species, then, have remained almost stationary; their number is now confined within comparatively narrow limits, and we see nothing in this Neptunian flora which at all approaches the astonishing variety of the terrestrial, although there are flowers of the ocean whose beauty rivals that of the lily and rose. The genera or tribes which really compose the flora of the sea are those zoophytes (half plants, half animals), those lithophytes (half plants, half stones), which cover its mountains and valleys with forests of coral and madrepore with gigantic and inextricably inter-woven branches: such are the anemones, the actinias, the marvelous shells which, thanks to their graceful forms and brilliant hues, are ornaments no less rich and curious for the submarine meadow and plain, than for our terrestrial fields the flowers are that expand in the sunshine and are fed by the morning dew.

Plants and Animals Combined.

These mixed beings, with a vegetative life, yet provided with organs proper to the animal kingdom, and endowed with instincts and faculties, rudimentary, it is true, but clearly manifest, are one of the most characteristic features of the Neptunian creation. It is not even certain whether this creation has really produced any plants, properly so called, and whether the weeds, so long and so unhesitatingly classed in the vegetable kingdom, are not also produced like the corals and lithophytes, by the polypes, or living creatures, inhabiting them, which there develop and reproduce themselves indefinitely.

Let us now consider the infusoria, the world makers, whose débris are discovered in prodigious quantities among the remains of the primitive creation. The name "infusoriæ" has been given to them because they were first observed in liquids holding in dissolution or in infusion particles of matter. The accumulated spoils of these infinitely small organisms constitute a notable part of the solid crust of our globe; and we ourselves are eye-witnesses of the phenomena of continual reproduction and destruction by which they made ready, at the epoch of the ancient geological formations, the habitation of man.

Astonishing Multitude of Animalcules.

According to Ehrenberg, a cubic inch of the Tripoli sand which is still in the course of formation in the environs of Bilin, in Bohemia, contains thousands of shells of the infusoria which produce this friable substance. The same naturalist states that, so great is their power of reproduction, one million of these animalcules are born in a few days. Bearing these facts in mind, it is not difficult to understand what immense masses of matter must have been deposited by the innumerable genera

tions which have succeeded one another during the long periods of the primitive epochs, and which have covered with accumulated sediment the rocks of fiery origin that formed the first crust of the earth. The fossil débris of larger shells are also found in vast masses, which sufficiently indicate the infinite multiplication of life in the dense warm waters of the primeval seas.

The illustrious geologist, Buckland, affirms that the shells of infusoria form a considerable portion of the entire mass of several mountains; as, for instance, the formations of the Alps, the Carpathians, and the Pyrenees. The famous colossal Sphinx, and the hugest of the Egyptian pyr

AN ISLAND IN MID-OCEAN FORMED BY CORAL INSECTS.

amids-that which is generally distinguished by the name of Cheopsare constructed of a limestone wholly composed of these minute creatures which are everywhere widely distributed, and which, by their countless legions, seem to have sought a compensation for their extreme diminutiveness. The sand of the sea-shore is so filled with them that one may justly say it is half composed of them. In an ounce of sand, in the West Indies, it was estimated that there were nearly four thousand of individuals.

The banks formed by the remains of these beings impede navigation and render it dangerous, obstruct the gulfs, fill up the harbors, and, in