domain of man, and constituting the basement of verdant islands. Nor are they excluded from among the materials which man applies to common purposes. At Djeddah, in Arabia, and on many other parts of the coast of the Red Sea, the houses are constructed with blocks of beautiful madrepore. In the Indian Isles, as well as in those of the Eastern ocean, madrepores are used for the manufacture of lime. At Martinique, men drag them for that purpose from the bottom of the

sea.

The beauty of the red coral has led, in past ages, as well as the present, to its use in various ornamental ways. Coral grows like a small fantastically branched dwarf tree upon rocks, and stones, rising to the height of twelve or thirteen inches. It is composed of a calcareous axis, or skeleton, covered with a gelatinous rind or tissue, connecting together the flowerlike polypes, which are capable either of retracting or expanding their eight conical tentacles. The calcareous axis is formed by concentric layers; and the surface is more or less distinctly striated in a longitudinal direction. Coral is found in different parts of the Mediterranean, and in the Red Sea, not only attached to rocks, but also to unfixed bodies, as fragments of larva, stone vases, and (as has been sometimes found) to human skulls.

The growth of the coral, or more strictly, its deposition by the living gelatine, is by no means so rapid as might be expected. Eight or ten years are requisite, the depth of the water being moderate, for the stem to attain to the height of ten or twelve inches, beyond which it does not increase. Arrived at this growth, it becomes thicker, but very slowly; and soon pierced in every part by those destructive worms which attack even the hardest rocks, it loses its solidity, and the slightest shock detaches it from its base. The polypes perish, and leave exposed the stem which drifts with the current, and which, by attrition with the sea-worn pebbles as it rolls along, soon becomes reduced to powder.

Coral is found at different depths; but a warm and sunny aspect is preferred. On the coast of France, it covers those rocks which face the south, and sometimes appears on their eastern or western aspects, but never on the northern. It is never met with at less than three or four yards below the surface, nor at a greater depth than three hundred.

In the straits of Messina, it prefers an eastern aspect; on a south aspect it is seldom found, and still more rarely on rocks facing the north or west. It is there fished for at a depth of from one to two hundred yards. In these straits, the rays of the sun strike more perpendicularly than on the coast of France, and their heat penetrates to a greater distance. Hence the coral is found even deeper than three hundred yards; but then its quality no longer compensates for the great risks and difficulties attending the efforts to procure it.

On the north coast of Africa, it is not sought for at a depth of more than thirty or forty yards, and three or four leagues from shore; it exists, indeed, at a greater depth, but does not repay the trouble of fishing for it, being of inferior quality.

The influence of light appears to operate powerfully on the growth of coral. It requires eight years to acquire an average height, in water from three to ten fathoms deep; ten years, if the water is fifteen fathoms; twenty-five or thirty years, if the water is a hundred fathoms; and at least forty years, if the depth is one hundred and fifty fathoms.

Coral is of a more beautiful colour in shallow waters, where the light reaches it, than where an immense column of water, absorbing all the luminous rays, deprives it of their energetic influence.

Coral obtained on the south coast of France, and on the coast of Italy, has the reputation of having the liveliest and most brilliant colouring. That procured on the Barbary coast is thicker, but of a less beautiful tint. Many different varieties are distinguished in commerce, and their value varies according to their quality.

Sicily is noted for its coral; and the principal fishery is established at Trepano. The mode of obtaining the coral is very simple. A large cross of wood, with a heavy weight in the centre, and nets fixed to each limb, is let down, horizontally, by means of a rope, into the sea. When this rude drag-net touches the bottom, the rope is made fast to a boat; and the fishers then row over the beds of coral, of which the stems and branches are broken off by the machine, and entangled in the nets. In the middle of the strait of Messina, the rocks, at a depth varying from one hundred and twenty to two hundred yards, produce coral, which is collected annually. The same ground

is dragged only once every ten years, in order to allow the growth of the crop to be completed. The coral fishery established off the coast of Barbary, is conducted much in the same manner.

With respect to the detached lithophytes, we have but little to add. To the Fongia actiniformis we have already alluded. The fungia crassitentaculata is an allied species. The calcareous axis of these madrepores, from the Southern ocean, is circular, with thin vertical plates radiating from a common centre. Over the whole of this is spread the living gelatine, which dips into the intervals between every plate, and covers these also. The mouth is oval, and placed in the centre of the disc, surrounded with tubercles; over the whole of the upper surface are distributed hollow tentacles, not unlike a number of minute leeches. These tentacles are strongly prehensile, seizing and directing to the mouth the small crustacea, or other minute animals, on which this polype feeds.

When these fungiæ are roughly touched, or irritated, the tentacles are with drawn between the laminæ, and the flesh shrinks down and accumulates in those interstices. The fungiæ are in fact single polypes, like the sea-anemonies, or actiniæ. Being free, they merely repose on the sand at the bottom of the water; but their power of locomotion is very limited.

Branch or barb of pennatula.

The above is an engraving of one barb of the plume of the pennatula, showing the character of the polypes as they appear when magnified.-M.

THE PATH TO THE BUSH.

Mr. Read, the missionary of the Kat River settlement, in South Africa, related while in England, the following fact, which was noted down at the time by Rev. J. A. James, and communicated by him to the editor of the Christian Keepsake.

prayer with greater privacy and freedom than they could do in their own confined dwellings, to retire among the trees and bushes in the vicinity; and, that they might carry on their devotions without being intruded on by others, and at the same time derive all that tranquillizing influence which would be produced by a spot with which no other thoughts were associated but such as are holy, each person selects for his own use, a particular bush, behind which he might pour out to God the pious breathings of his soul. The rest considered this bush as an oratory, sacred to the brother or sister who had appropriated it, and which therefore, was never to be violated by the foot or gaze of a stranger, during the season of occupancy by its proprietor. The constant tread of the worshippers in their diurnal visits to this hallowed spot, would of necessity wear a path in the thin grass which lay between their huts and the scene of their communication with God. On one occasion, a Christian Hottentot woman said to a female member of the church, "Sister, I am afraid you are somewhat declining in religion." The fear was expressed with a look of affection, and with a tone which savoured nothing of railing accusation, nor of reproachful severity, but altogether of tender fidelity. The individual thus addressed, was too conscious of its truth to deny the fact, and too much melted by the meekness of wisdom with which the solicitude was expressed, to be offended, and meekly asked what led her friend to the opinion she had expressed. "Because," said the other, "the grass has grown over your path to the bush.' The back

slider fell under the rebuke, confessed that secret prayer had been neglected, and that her heart had been turned away

from the Lord. The admonition thus given had its desired effect, and the faithful Hottentot had the satisfaction of restoring the wanderer, not only to the path to the bush, but to that God with whom she there communed in secret.

LEIPSIC FAIR.

ENGLISH HISTORY.

JAMES I.

THE religious zeal of king James I. caused him in 1614 to consent to the burning of two Arians for heresy. The wickedness of persecution for religious opinions was not yet fully understood: in these cases, also, there was some degree of guilt suspected as to state matters. But the proceedings of James presented a favourable contrast to those of queen Mary: during eleven years, from 1607 to 1618, only sixteen Romish priests suffered as recusants, though the conduct of that body was notoriously disloyal. Fines, however, were enforced to the amount of more than 3,000l. annually. This was regarded as a useful and a fruitful source of revenue.

Considerable attention was excited by the archbishop of Spalatro, who came to England in 1615, where he became a Protestant, but after some years returned to the church of Rome. The king was not inactive in his endeavours to advance those views of religion which he adopted, APRIL, 1842.

especially desiring to enforce uniformity among his subjects, and in many respects adopting the principles of Popery while he spoke against it, declaring his eager desire for the downfall of the pope. This was especially manifested when, in the year 1618, king James caused a declaration, called the Book of Sports, from its subject, "concerning lawful sports to be used on Sundays after Divine service," to be published by order from the bishops, by being read in all the parish churches of their respective dioceses. This opened a floodgate to all manner of licentiousness among the populace, and became the means of unspeakable oppression to a great number of worthy clergymen. The ruling prelates, by the king's command, required the clergy to read the declaration publicly before their congregations; and those clergy who refused felt the iron rod of oppression and privation. It struck the sober part of the nation with horror, to hear themselves invited by the authority of the king and the church to that which seemed so contrary to the command of

L