Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . ork went on with a certain rapidity. But under the mostfavorable circumstances the progressmust wait the moodsof these capricious lit-tle creatures, who willhide themselves forhours, drawing in alltheir soft parts, and clos-ing themselves againstinvestigation. One daylie sat watching a massof living porites, whichform the foundation ofthe reef. A specimenof this is shown in thefigure. Every spot onthe surface marks a sep-arate individual, whilethe lines disposed aboutit like a star indicate the
Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . ork went on with a certain rapidity. But under the mostfavorable circumstances the progressmust wait the moodsof these capricious lit-tle creatures, who willhide themselves forhours, drawing in alltheir soft parts, and clos-ing themselves againstinvestigation. One daylie sat watching a massof living porites, whichform the foundation ofthe reef. A specimenof this is shown in thefigure. Every spot onthe surface marks a sep-arate individual, whilethe lines disposed aboutit like a star indicate the feelers,ingly small, scarcely larger than the head of a pin. 8. On this occasion Mr. Agassiz had been looking fora long time with a magnifying-glass at the minute creat-ures forming this singular community, when suddenly hesaw a little, round, yellowish object—so small that it wouldscarcely have been noticed without the magnifier—pro-trude from the mouth of one of them. It was a newfeature ; he had never observed anything of the kind be-fore, and he watched it with intense curiosity. It ad-. Coral Porite. The animals are exceed- 74 NATURAL HISTORY READER. vaneed more and more, creeping slowly out, and pres-ently parted from the coral stock and floated free in thewater, an independent being, oval in shape, a mere bubblefor transparency and lightness, but evidently a living thing,since it moved about quite rapidly. He had seen the birthof a coral animal. While lie followed its motions withwonder and interest, he perceived that the same process wasgoing on over the whole mass. It was a birthday in thisgreat family, for now from the countless mouths, crowdingthe surface of the coral-head, the same little objects beganto appear, and were cast off like the first, till hundreds ofnew beings floated in the water around the parent community. 9. Mr. Agassiz had chanced upon the moment of breed-ing in a coral stock. He had never seen it, nor had anynaturalist ever seen it before ; he
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