A CORAL GROVE
Perhaps you did not know that the fishes in the sea, both large and
small, were playful creatures. Well, they are. They can frisk, frolic,
play "hide-and-seek", "catch", and race and romp at a great rate.
Now I want to tell something of our playground, and if you are surprised
at the beauty with which we are surrounded, why should you be? There
surely are lovely things on the earth for all kinds of upper-air
creatures, such as Folks, animals, birds, and insects, to enjoy.
Listen, then, while I tell about the "caverns of ocean". A cavern, you
know, is a hollow or den, and old ocean holds many a cavern or den full
of interest and beauty. But I will take you first to a kind of grove.
My home, where I spend most of my time, is in deep water. But not in the
deepest, oh, no! That is said to be two thousand fathoms down. Think of
it! More than two miles below the surface. There probably is but very
little life at that depth. But when I visit some groves, or the region
of a reef, I must first sail and sail until I reach water that is not
deep at all.
Do you think you have ever seen coral, real coral? Yes, doubtless you
have, and you may have seen it in various forms. But I feel sure you
have never seen coral to know very much about it, as you have never been
to the bottom of the sea.
Ah, here are all kinds of graceful shapes shooting up from the depths,
so singular and varied in form, that one would wonder what they are
meant to stand for. Look at these trees, perfect little trees in coral,
eight or ten feet high, with branches spreading out from the trunk. On
the branches are delicate sprays of fairylike net or lace-work, all in
white, but of various patterns. Should you get near enough, you would
see that these branches, some of which seem to bear flowers in shapes
like pinks or lilies, are dented or pitted as if tiny teeth had eaten
into them. This may be partly the work of worms.
Now, this is simply a large piece of white coral, but all around and
about are fanciful shapes, nearly as large as the one described. Here,
too, are what might be taken for thick bushes or shrubs, branching out
with sprays of fretwork, white and spotless. Then there are smaller
growths like low plants, and curiously colored, some pink, some red,
others a yellowish white. These, too, appear to bear flowers, asters,
carnations, or roses.
And for miles at a time we can rove and sport in a beautiful coral
grove.
Think of a little house, if you can, made entirely of ivory, with here
and there bright tints mingling with the white. For coral looks like
ivory when its natural roughness is smoothed and polished. Think of
swimming through little rooms, under arches, over lovely walks, through
make-believe doors, slipping past upright altars of red and white coral,
resting on spreading seats, or under outreaching canopies, or stopping
to look at another outreaching shape like the arms of candelabra or
candlestick holders. Sliding over footstools, and under culverts, all
soft and gleaming in color. Then again there are curves and passages in
which we can hide and stay hidden as long as we please. Is it not
beautiful? And all so clean and clear!
Yet there is need to take heed and be careful. These stretching shapes
and branches, these candle-holders and bushy twigs have sharp, hard
points, and bouncing against them too suddenly might severely wound a
fish, or it might slip into a crevice where it would be pricking work to
get out.
Now, what is coral. Is it alive? Does it live and breathe? It is one of
the curious, mysterious things of the ocean about which Folks have
written and studied, and the wise ones say that coral is neither insect
nor fish, but a kind of sea-animal, that lives in both deep and shallow
waters. In the beginning it appears to be a tiny sea-creature, like a
small, fleshy bag, with a mouth at one end, while with the other it
clings to some object, almost always a rock.
These little creatures are said to have the power to sting if they are
provoked. From these tiny frames there comes a hard, stony substance
that spreads and spreads as we have seen, while the part that was alive
becomes a mere dead shell.
This is the best explanation I can give about coral and the tiny
creatures from which it takes its start, and that seem so exceedingly
small to me to be called "sea-animals." But think of the wonderful
formations that grow from the bodies of these mites of creatures! Why,
there are whole reefs or chains of rocky borders along some coasts made
entirely of coral. Some of them are known as barrier reefs.
Bless you! it may be hard to believe, but a barrier reef twelve hundred
miles long runs along the coast of Australia between the Pacific and
Indian Oceans! Then there are coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, whole
platforms of solid coral which shut in portions of quiet water in some
places.
The little corals themselves do not work in deep water, nor above the
surface of the sea. But the bony substance spreads and spreads, up,
down, and across the sea. And as many shell-fish eat into coral, great
quantities of fine coral-sand sink to the bottom, making a nice white
carpet for the fishes to glide over. Folks do not take coral from the
sea at any time but during the months you call April, May, and June.
Now remember these things when you go into houses and see fine large
pieces of coral on the mantel, or it may be standing against the wall.
Perhaps you have a coral necklace of little, uneven, red, stick-like
beads. The jeweller-man can tell you how very hard it is to drill the
holes in these beads; it is like drilling through hard rock. But if you
happen to have a necklace, brooch, or bracelet of pink coral, my! you
had better take good care of it, for it must have cost a little bag of
gold. Pink coral is rare, beautiful, and very expensive. The genuine
pink-tinted is said to have sold for so great a price as five hundred
dollars for a single ounce.
Heigho! I want neither necklace, brooch, nor bracelet. For where, pray,
would Lord Dolphin wear a breastpin, or how would he look with a string
of coral beads about his neck, or a bracelet pinched about his tail?
You needn't laugh so hard. I have seen Folks who hung too much jewelry
about themselves and seemed to think it becoming. A few pieces of nice
jewelry may be tasteful and ornamental, but when too much is worn, I
have a fancy that it might make a coral mite or an oyster want to laugh.
Pretty soon I must explain why an oyster might have a right to be amused
at seeing too many gems crowded on at once. But first you must hear
something funny about coral, something so silly, too, that even a fish
is almost ashamed to tell of it; but this was true long in the past,
Folks are much wiser now.
Long years ago there were Folks who believed that wearing a "charm,"
which often was a little piece of coral, perhaps made into an ornament,
would charm away harm or danger, and keep them safe from "the evil eye."
"Dear sakes!" you cry, "what was 'the evil eye'?"
Well, it is almost sad to think that any one could be so foolish, yet
when Folks know but little, they will catch up strange notions and
listen to silly signs without an atom of truth or common sense in them.
So some ignorant Folks once believed that a witch, or some witchy Folk
with an evil eye, might look upon them and cause them harm, or make them
meet some danger.
And they pretended that hanging a bit of coral somewhere about them
would keep off a look from "the evil eye," and that making children wear
a piece of it would charm away sickness and act as a medicine. Now did
you ever!
Chinese Folks and Hindoos have made most exquisite and wonderful
carvings of the coral of the Mediterranean, and there is such a thing as
black coral, also known as brain coral, but it is too brittle to be
worked upon.
Ah, who would not be a Dolphin, merry and free, whisking through deep,
still water, coasting over coral sands, and diving and sporting through
coral groves!
Nor is this the only rare and curious place through which I rove,
chasing my comrades, wandering about in search of caverns below, and
sweet music above, while forever making war on my enemy, the
flying-fish.
You see, these fish can cut through the water, reach the surface, then
really fly with finny wings across short spaces right in the air. They
think themselves smart, and are great braggarts.
One morning a flying-fish was bent on worrying me, swishing its flapping
fins directly before my face, then darting upward, sending the spray
cross-wise into my eyes. I made a snap or two at the vexing creature,
but as I missed him he became bolder, and stopped a race I was having
with one of my mates.
Suddenly I made a great leap after the flier, but up he went, up, up,
and I after him, sharp! Further up he went, and I pursued. He laughed,
fish-fashion, his big mouth sprawling way across his face as he sped
above the surface.
I poked my nose into upper air and saw which way he was going, and to my
joy he made a dip just as up went my beak again, and I had him, squeezed
securely between my jaws.
Of all the wriggling and squirming, the begging and the pleading that
ever you saw or heard! But I did not want to eat him, nor did I mean to
kill him, either. But I did mean to teach old Mister Flier a lesson,
showing it was neither wise nor in good taste to torment a fish-fellow
that was ever so much larger and stronger than himself.
So down, down I went, until I reached a cell in a coral grove, and in I
popped his Majesty, and sat down and grinned at him. My turn to show a
wide mouth now.
Did you know a fish could tremble? That fellow trembled and shook as if
he had a fishy fit when he found himself in that den, with a great
Dolphin's eye on him. Perhaps it was indeed "an evil eye" to him. He
could have slipped out and away would I only move and give him room. Oh,
no, not just yet! I lashed the water with my strong tail, and "made up
eyes" at him, I am afraid, in a truly evil way.
Then I began to feel that it was neither kind nor noble to carry my
punishment too far, so off I slowly sailed, and out from his tight
corner slid my slippery prisoner. And he tormented me no more. I did not
mean to harm him, and do not think I did, but he slipped sideways
through the water ever after that.
It must be that he jammed a fin in his haste to escape from his cubby,
but I see him often, and always with that sideways gait. I hope he is
cured forever of making of himself a pester and a plague.
[Illustration: "MY TURN TO SHOW A WIDE MOUTH NOW"]
I was glad to see that he still could fly, and that swift as an arrow he
could dart over and under, through and across, the thousand winding ways
of our coral groves.