Part 9 (2/2)
Gladness compels me to record a recent develop of fa been gradually absorbed during recent years, the overflow--co perhaps a thousand amorous birds--has taken possession of the sand spit of Dunk Island So caloodwill, that when temporarily disturbed, they ainst intrusion in thin tinny screas before the friendly visit is well over Not for ten years at the least have sea-birds utilised this spot Realising their privileges elsewhere in the ihbourhood, they have thrust themselves under official protection
They crowd ht of ten years'
usage They scold every boat, affront passing steaenerally as if on the assurance of counsel's opinion on the legality of their trespass
And so it has come to pass, that the example of the uninfluential Beachcoe for birds, has been warranted and confirmed by the laws of the country A proclaood set ter on this and two neighbouring groups of islands
Is there not excuse in this flattery for just a little vainglory?
CHAPTER IV
GARDEN OF CORAL
Braarden of coral--a border of pretty, quaint and varied growth springing up along the verge of deep water It is not as it used to be--no less lovely than a flower-garden of the land Terrestrial storreater havoc in the shallow places of the sea as on the land Pearl-shell divers assert that ordinary ”rough weather” is imperceptible at a depth of two fathoenerally accepted as the extreme limit of wave action, however violent the surface commotion Yet in the shallow sea, within the Barrier Reef in tiroves of e lumps of coral rock are shattered or thrown bodily out of place and piled up on ”uproarious beaches”
A storetation ashore, destroyed arden enchanting In its commotion, too, the sea lost its purity The sediitation ceased, were precipitated--a brown furry, sli the industrious polyps to who restored, fresh and vigorous shoots sprouting up froe is wholly repaired and the original beauty of the garden restored, for the ”growth” of coral--the skeletons of the polyps--is methodical and very slow We speak of coral as if it were a plant, yet the reproduction is by s, and the polyp is as much an animal as a horse or an elephant
In tiarden comprised several acres in which were plants of alht and delicate in colour Fancy n shrubs, standard and clipped; elaborate bouquets, bunches of grapes, compact cauliflowers, frail red fans Rounded, skull-like protuberances with the convolutions of the brain exposed, stag-horns, whip-thongs yards long,fanciful confectionery, intricate lace-work in the deepest indigo blue, have their appointed places Sorowths are snohite, tipped with mauve, lemon-coloured tipped hite, white tipped with lemon and pale blue
On the rocks rest stalkless ills upperh nodules, boat- and canoe-shaped dishes of coral Adhering to the rocks are thin, flaky, brittle growths reseoblets and cups, tiered epergnes, distorted saucers, eccentric vases, crazily-shaped dishes Clams and cowries and other molluscs people the cracks and crevices of coral blocks, and congregate beneath detached masses and loose stones In these fervid and fecund waters life is real, life is earnest Here, are elaborately araudy colours are lavished; grotesque crabs, fish brilliant in hue as hu, active and alert, crawling and slithering, slow and stationary, swared with a population of varied elements viciously disposed towards each other It is one of Nature's most cruel battlefields, for it is the brood of the sea that ”plotsto live” Molluscs are murderers and the most shameless of cannibals No creature at all conspicuous is safe, unless it is agile and alert, or of horrific aspect, or endoith giant's strength, or is encased in ar injury to anything save creatures of almost microscopic dimensions, assumes the style and demeanour of a ferocious monster, ready at a s of war Another hides itself as a rugged nodule of moss-covered stone; its limbs so artfully stoay that detection would be impossible did it not occasionally betray itself by a stealthy rey and brown, throws over its shi+ning shoulders a shawl of the hue of the rock on which it crawls about, grey or brown or tahite specks and dots which make for invisibility--a thin filhtly, and the helpless creature, discerning that its disguise has been penetrated, withdraws it, folding it into its shell, and closes its door against expected attack Ita dead and eer is past
Then again it will drape itself in its gar in search of its prey Under the loose rocks and detached lumps of coral for one live there will be scores of dead shells
The whole field is streith the relics of perpetual conflict, resolving and being resolved into original elements We talk of the strenuous life of le for existence really means The very bulwarks of lilossy black, torpedo-shaped creature cuts a toh itand grinding its cavity as it develops in size and strength, yet it is not safe Fate follows in insignificant guise, drills a tiny hole through its shell, and the toilsoe becorieant death is strict in his arrest” All is strife--war to the death If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty a men, what quality shall avert destruction where insatiable cannibalism is the rule There is but one creature that seems to make use of the debris of the battlefield--the hermit crab (CAEnobITA), which but half armoured must to avert exterrows each narrow habitation for a size larger
Disconsolate is the condition of the herrown his quarters, or has been enticed froer than he, or who has had the fortune to be ejected without dismemberment
The full face of the red blue-spotted variety (PAGURUS PUNCTULATUS) is an effective menace to any ordinary foe, and that honourable part is presented at the front door when the tenant is at hoelatinous, inert rear end must be tucked and hooked into the convolutions of the shell, deprived of which he is at the ht and truculent appearance The disinterested spectator may smile at the vain, yet frantically serious efforts of the hermit to coax his flabby rear into a shell obviously a flatteringenious attitudes and comic contortions is the attempt to stoay a No 8 tail into a No 5 shell abandoned When a shell of respectable dirateful herainst intruders, and peers out with an expression of ferocious content, smiles may come, and will be out of place only when the aches of still increasing bulk force his
A frilled clam (TRIDACNA COMPRESSA) in its infancy seals or anchors itself in a tiny crack or crevice, and apparently by a continuous but i, deepens and enlarges its cavity as it develops Should it survive in defiance of all its foes, just taking fro valves, it may increase in bulk, but its aparte--just a neat fit In its abiding-place it presents an irregular strip of silk, green as polished reen, raceful folds--an attractive ornament in the drab rock Touch any part--there is a slow suspensory withdrawal, and then a snap and spurt of water as the last re valves of porcelain white
Apart from the bulk and the fantastic shapes of coral structures, there is the beauty of the living polyps That which when dry may have the superficial appearance of stone plentifully pitted--a heavy dullwater covers it
The time to admire these frail marine flowers is on an absolutely calm day All the sediment of the sea has been precipitated The water is as transparent as rock crystal, but like that htly distorts the object unless the view is absolutely vertical It is a lens perfect in its lihly in the shape of a es, and a bulbous stalk Rich brown alga hangs froes in frills and flounces Little cones stud its surface, each of which is the ho, star-like flower, a flohich has the power of displaying and withdrawing itself, and of waving its fringed rays Each flower is self-coloured, and roup of animals There are blues of various depths and shades froreens, browns and greys, each springing from a separate receptacle All are alike in shape--viewed vertically, many-rayed stars; horizontally, fir-trees faultlessly symmetrical in form and proportion These flowers all blossom, or trees, or stars, are shy and timorous A splash and they shrink away The hope of such wilderness--as barren-looking as desert sandstone--ever blossoain seems forbidden Quietude for a few e, at first furtively but gathering courage in full vanity, until the buff rock becoarden bed
Upon coral blocks, which represent the skeletons of polyps in orderly and systeanised appear, having in one feature a family likeness to the polyps, upon whose hospitality they i up of an establishment on the remains of innumerable ancestors of its host may be said to be merely an imposition One is a species of mollusc which reseiven the name of SURPULA In its babyhood it attaches itself to the coral, and forthwith begins to build a hoa corpulent worm, instantaneously petrified while in the act of a le or fantastic contortion In this co a lovely circular disc of glowing pink as its front door A few inches beneath the water this operculuaze upon it, it slips on one side, and five aninals Though well housed, it is almost as timorous as the coral polyps Upon the least alarm the rays disappear in a twinkle, and the pink pearl trap-door glows again Break off the end of the shelly tunnel in an attempt to secure the pearl, and it is as elusive as a sunbeae of the cylinder is flush with the surface of the coral in which the shell is elows in safety
The living rays or flower-like face are the features in which this encased worm resembles the coral polyps on the one hand and the houseless beche-de-mer on the other So to keep in the fashi+on, make the very best of five simple points Others flaunt with no apparent vanity or pride quite a plume, of complex rays more or less beautifully coloured A hich occasionally swiain reposes inertly on the sand, as does the beche-de-mer, sets off its brown naked body with a red ni nianism of the coral polyps is co secondary rays, the coreat beauty and which call to anic substances blooested state of a coral reef, and the inevitable result thereof--perpetual war of species and shocking cannibalis has yet to be mentioned
Possibly there may be those who are disinclined to credit the stateers But the fact re ample room and to spare within their oalls, they offer hospitality to horaceless Nature has not equipped to take part in the rough-and-tule for existence outside A tender-hearted mollusc (PINNA) accepts the company of a beautiful form of mantis-shrimp--tender, delicate and affectionate--which dies quickly when reular creature which has no charer possible to iine It is a miniature eel, which looks as if it had been drawn out of rock crystal or perfectly clear glass There is no apparent difference between the head and the tail, save that one end tapers radually than the other Very limited power of le It merely squirms in the extremity of laziness or lassitude These two keep the PINNA coreen with pin-point black eyes, and the little eel as bright and as transparent yet as dull and insipid as glass One of the oysters attracts the patronage of a rotund crab, which in soreat anemone a brilliant fish--scarlet and silver defined with purple hair lines--which on alarm retires within the ample folds of its host
The flowers of a coral reef live A bouquet of lavender-coloured, tender, orderly spikes has a gentle rhythone--naught rey brown lump on the rock, whence water oozes Another forreen of parsley, and faints at the touch, as does the sensitive plant of the land Another strange creature, roughly saucer-shaped, but deep grey mottled hite and brown, continuously waves its serrated edges and pulsates at the centre It starts and stops, contracts and withdraws steadily into the sand upon interference
One of the shrimps (GONODACTYLUS CHIRAGRA) in my experience found only far out on the reef at dead loater winter spring-tides, ems of purest ray serene which the dark unfathoed with transparent golden lace; the s are of emerald with ruby joints, and silvery claws; the eneral sheen of orna white antennae, delicate and opaque, spring from the head The decorative hues are not laid on flat, but are coarsely powdered and sprinkled as in the case of one of the rarest of Brazilian butterflies, and they live
Picture a moss-rose with the ”ht plays and sparkles, and you have an idea of the effect of the jewellery of this lustrous crustacean Yet it is not for huobbled up by sory fish is the ordinary fate of the species Possibly splendour is bestowed upon the shriuish a particularly choice dainty, and the fish show the very ach art in Nature remorselessly lavished
Quite distinct is the unconscious genius which now deh a brilliant example of the employment of unattractive deceptive features, it has no individual corace, no style of its own Every feature, attitude andthe penalty, it rowth, a trivial collection of rough, short weeds of the sea--grey, green and lides and stops Theand frequent An untiaze of the observer is directed to the spot, betrays that here is the centre of independent life andcrab, whose frail claws and tufted legs are breeched with muddy etation and realistic counterfeits thereof Inspection, however critical, makes no satisfactory definition between the real and the artificial algae, so perfectly do the details of the es and fur of the aniure and deformed limbs