In figures 3, 4, and 5, the Polypi themselves are seen, with their feelers put forth in search of prey.

Fig. 3. Sertularia pumila, Great tooth-coralline.

4.

5.

6.

7.

polyzonias, Sea-tamarisk.

halecyna, Herring-bone coralline.
antennina, Lobster's-horn coralline.
lendigera, Nit coralline.

Fig. 8.

Fig. 8 represents a magnified view of the Hydra brunnea, or brown Hydra, another species of Polypus, which is not uncommon in fresh water in the months of July and August. The cut shows the manner in which the young are produced. These Polypi have been the subjects of many curipus experiments, which show the surprising tenacity of life in the lower orders of animals. They have been cut across, divided lengthwise, and even

turned inside out, and yet each portion has not only continued living, but has become a perfect animal.

Sea-weed and other substances, which have been left for some time undisturbed, are frequently found covered with a chalky incrustation, which appears to the naked eye like net-work, but, if placed under a moderate power,

Fig. 13.

Fig. 14.

Fig. 14.

Fig. 13. The pitcher hornwrack, a native of the Red sea. 14. Animal of a polypus very highly magnified.

The corallines appear to the naked eye, from their branching form, and from being fixed at the base to some other substance, more like vegetable than animal productions, and for a long time were known by the name of Zoophites, that is, animal plants, and were considered as the link between animal and vegetable life.

The red coral of commerce, of which beads and necklaces are made, is formed by an animal of the class Polypi; but instead of this stony deposit becoming a dwelling-" place, in which its ingenious architect retreats for safety from outward injury, it merely answers the purpose of a strong support, surrounded by a thin fleshy substance, in which a numerous tribe of minute Polypi form their fragile dwellings.

In contemplating the slight and diminutive forms of this curious portion of the animal kingdom, we are apt to corsider them as acting some very subordinate part; but the geologist can inform us, that the united and constant efforts of these specks of animation have been productive of gigantic effects. A great portion of the South Sea Islands have their foundations formed of coral reefs; that is, immense masses of different species of corals and corallines, in which, in the first instance, sea-weeds and other substances became entangled; as these rotted, a vegetable mould was produced; the sea-birds frequented them, and brought different kinds of seed from other places, whose growth and decay still continued to add to

(

the soil, till at length it became of sufficient depth and substance to offer a resting-place to some enterprising fishermen.*

Montgomery, in his poem of the Pelican Island, gives the following beautiful description of the formation of one of these islands.

I MARK'D a whirlpool ir perpetual play,
As though the mountain were itself alive,
And catching prey on every side, with feelers
Countless as sunbeams, slight as gossamer.

Compress'd like wedges, radiated like stars,.
Branching like sea-weed, whirl'd in dazzling rings;
Subtle and variable as flickering flames,,
Sight could not trace their evanescent changes,
Nor comprehend their motions, till minute
And curious observation caught the clue
To this live labyrinth-where every one,
By instinct taught, performed its little task.
Millions of millions thus, from age to age,
With simplest skill, and toil unweariable,
No moment and no movement unimproved,
Laid line on line, on terrace terrace spread,

To swell the heightening, brightening, gradual mound,
By marvellous structure climbing toward the day.
Omnipotence wrought in them, with them, by them;
Hence what Omnipotence alone could do,
Worms did. I saw the living pile ascend,
The mausoleum of its architects,

Still dying upwards as their labors closed;
Slime the material; but the slime was turn'd
To adamant by their petrific touch;
Frail were their frames, ephemeral their lives,
Their masonry imperishable. * * * * *
* ** * * * * * A point at first,
It peer'd above those waves a point so small,
I just perceived it fixed where all were floating;
And when a bubble cross'd it, the blue film
Expanded like a sky above the speck;

That speck became a handbreadth; day and night
It spread, accumulated, and ere long
Presented to my view a dazzling plain,
White as the moon amid the sapphire-sea.
Compared with this amazing edifice,
Babel's stupendous folly, though it aim'd
To scale heaven's battlements, was but a toy,

The plaything of the world in infancy.

Nine times the age of man that coral-reef

Had bleach'd beneath the torrid noon, and borne

The thunder of a thousand hurricanes,

Raised by the jealous ocean, to repel

That strange encroachment on his old domain.

Fragments of shells, dead sloughs, sea-monster's bones,

For a more particular account of these coral formations, the reader is referred to the 111 page of the second volume of this work.

Whales stranded in the shallows, hideous weeds
Hurl'd out of darkness by the uprooting surges ;
These with unutterable relics more,

Heap'd the rough surface, till the various mass,
By Nature's chemistry combined and purged,
Had buried the bare rock in crumbling mould.
All seasons were propitious; every wind,
From the hot Siroc to the wet Monsoon,
Temper'd the crude materials; while heaven's dew
Fell on the sterile wilderness as sweetly
As though it were a garden of the Lord.

FASCINATION OF SERPENTS.

THERE is a very general opinion, which has been adopted even by some eminent naturalists, that several species of serpents possess the power of fascinating birds and small quadrupeds, by fixing their eyes upon the animal, so that the poor victim is unable to escape from his formidable enemy. Dr. Barton, of Philadelphia, published, in 1796, a "memoir concerning the fascinating faculty which has been ascribed to the rattle-snake, and other American serpents," in which he maintains that this supposed power of fascination does not exist, and offers some ingenious explanations of the origin of what he considers a popular mistake. Our readers will, we think, be interested by an extract or two from this work :

:

In almost every instance I have found that the supposed fascinating faculty of the serpent was exerted upon the birds at the particular season of their laying their eggs, or of their hatching, or of their rearing their young, still tender and defenceless. I now began to suspect, that the cries and the fears of birds supposed to be fascinated originated in an endeavor to protect their nest or young; my inquiries have convinced me that this is the

case.

"I have already observed, that the rattle-snake does not climb up trees; but the black snake and some other species of the coluber do. When impelled by hunger and incapable of satisfying it by the capture of animals on the ground, they begin to glide up trees or bushes upon which a bird has its nest. The bird is not ignorant of the serpent's