In this lagoon there is
comparatively little living coral; the bottom of it is formed of coral
mud. If we pounded this coral in water, it would be converted into
calcareous mud, and the waves during storms do for the coral skeletons
exactly what we might do for this coral in a mortar; the waves tear off
great fragments and crush them with prodigious force, until they are
ground into the merest powder, and that powder is washed into the
interior of the lagoon, and forms a muddy coating at the bottom. Beside
that there are a great many animals that prey upon the coral--fishes,
worms, and creatures of that kind, and all these, by their digestive
processes, reduce the coral to the same state, and contribute a very
important element to this fine mud. The living coral found in the
lagoon, is not the reef building coral; it does not give rise to the
same massive skeletons. As you go in a boat over these shallow pools,
you see these beautiful things, coloured red, blue, green, and all
colours, building their houses; but these are mere tenements, and not to
be compared in magnitude and importance to the masses which are built
by the reef-builders themselves.
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