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repore families. Their work was silently carried on under the boisterous waves of the sea; and when they had finished it, God lifted up the crust of the earth, and brought their labors from under the waters. Sea-weeds soon gather upon these raised coral rocks; and when a little mould is formed, birds come and often drop seeds: floating pieces of timber, and matted portions of vegetables from other islands, are dashed up on their shores, bearing grass and other seeds; and it is wonderful how soon, by these means, a coral island becomes a land of plenty and of beauty for man to inhabit. Though coral reefs sometimes look like solid walls, yet the coral polypes more frequently pile their cells together in the shape of large trees, with huge branches. Whole forests of these living trees are to be seen under the waves of the sea.

The true corallines make the walls of their houses white. There are, however, another species of polypes, generally called coral animals, but which naturalists classify as asteroids, which build black and red habitations. These animals make that beautiful coral which is worn as ornaments. I have often seen men dredging for this valuable article in the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas. The polypes of the black and red varieties make their cells in a thick, fleshy jelly, that is deposited over the solid chalk wall, both the chalk and the jelly being formed by their own bodies.

Among these asteroids there is one called the Alcyonian coral, pieces of which are often thrown up on the sea-shore. This coral looks so much like dull, yellowish, tough sea-weed, that a great many people would pass by it without a suspicion that it belonged to the coral family. But if we take it up and place it in a glass of sea-water, provided it still be alive, the strange little animals that live in its fleshy substance will push out their arms, which look like stars, through the little holes that cover its surface. Then, all brilliant with starry flowers, the whole mass becomes a beautiful sight. The third figure of the three placed at the head of this article represents a mass of alcyonian coral, with the little animals stretching out their arms (or tentacula, as naturalists call them) in this manner. But we must glance at another of these asteroids, called the tubipore coral. This species has no jelly flesh of any kind belonging to it; but all the little polypes live in separate pipes, as distinct from each other as separate reeds in a bundle. Because of its form,something like the pipes of an organ, - the tubipore is sometimes called the musical coral. The tubes are often of a fine crimson color, and the polypes of a bright green. I need not tell you that,

VARIETIES OF TUBIPORE CORAL.

when they are arrayed in these colors, they are extremely beautiful. How can we help admiring not only the wisdom but the goodness of God, in arranging the works of his creation in such a manner that they are pleasing to the eye?

These polypes often draw themselves entirely into their tubes, and close up the opening with a little fold of skin. As their bodies grow upwards, the tubes follow them; and every now and then the whole colony of polypes, thus growing up side by side, take it at the same time into their heads to make a little knot, which knot divides the mass of tube coral into a sort of floor, and from the top of this floor the polypes start up with fresh tubes, and again work on till they deem it suitable to make another. floor. Every floor is wider than the one beneath it, because a number of new little polypes have begun their tubes in it, so that the whole mass is larger at the top than at the bottom; just as a loaf of sugar would be if it were turned upside down.

I have one more group of these asteroid corals to describe to you, and that is the extraordinary one called the pennatula, or sea-pen genus. This name is given because the sea-pen has a hard, chalky stick, like the stem of a goose's quill. One end is blunt and naked, like the part of the quill we make into a pen; and just where the goose-quill becomes feathery, the pennatula also becomes feathery; but the down of the pennatula is not like the insensible down of the bird's feather; for that which looks like down on the sea-pen is all alive! Each separate little bit of the feather which our fingers can brush up on the side of the quill is, in the pennatula, a long line of polype houses; each fine line having many polype tubes arranged along it. Row after row of these peopled streets rise up on both tides of the stick, to its very finest top; and really the whole thing boks as if the polypes had been trying to make their habitation as much like a large goose's wing-feather as possible.

If you will take a look at the three figures which appear at the head of this article, you will notice that the first figure looks like a quill. This is a good representation of the sea-pen. The second figure represents a single branch of the pen, highly magnified.

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U. F.

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Y children, you have, doubtless, all looked on those beautiful

or Streamers, which dance so merrily in the northern skies on frosty evenings. We generally see them in the form of beams and rays; but they appear in various forms and shapes in the Arctic regions. Sometimes they spread over the entire horizon, flickering, and shooting, and changing most whimsically from brilliant lights to dusky shadows. At other times, they assume the shape of pyramids. columns, crowns, and arches. The picture represents an Aurora which was seen in Europe in October, 1716. Another arch, equally splendid, was seen at Gosport, England, in January, 1831. In olden times the Aurora did not appear so frequently as it does now. But, when it did shine, people regarded it with fear and terThey thought it portended some terrible event, such as war. famine, or pestilence. In this age, however, men are wiser. They know that the Aurora is the product of some natural law; that it is probably caused by the passage of currents of electric fluid through the atmosphere when it is in a fit state to make them visible. Hence, no intelligent person is now afraid of the beautiful Aurora Borealis.

ror.

The meteors were first named Aurora Borealis in France by GASSENDUS, in 1681. The ancients called them chasmata, and trabes, and bolides, according to their forms and colors.

The Aurora, though generally of a grayish white, is sometimes of a yellowish tint; at other times it is red, green, orange, and crimson. In the further north, they are not unfrequently attended with hissing and cracking noises.

The Aurora is one of the wonderful and beautiful productions of the Creator. Like all the works of God, it is worthy of your attention, and will repay you for all the pains you may take to study and understand it.

F. F.

AVALANCHES.

N the year 1749, the whole village of Rueras, in the canton

time removed from its site, by an avalanche of frozen snow. But this change, which happened in the night-time, was effected without the least noise, so that the inhabitants were not aware of it, and, on awaking in the morning, could not imagine why daylight did not dawn. A hundred persons were dug out of the snow, sixty of whom were still alive; the interstices between the snow containing sufficient air to support life. Not many years ago an instance occurred of a family buried under one of these avalanches, and who continued in that situation for above a fortnight, remaining all that time in utter darkness, and incrusted in a body of snow several hundred feet in thickness. A massy beam supported the roof against this enormous pressure, and a milch ass, which happened to be thus incarcerated with the people, furnished sufficient nourishment for the support of life, until they were at length restored to the light of day.

A

MUTUAL ATTACHMENT.

LADY friend of mine was walking on Broadway, a short time ago, when a gentleman's button caught in the fringe of her shawl. Some moments elapsed before the parties were separated. "I am attached to you, madam," said the gentleman, good-humoredly, while he was industriously trying to get loose. "The attachment is mutual, sir," was the equally good-humored reply.

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