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.