11 - Within the Deep by R. Cadwallader Smith - The Garden of the Sea

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lesson eleven of Within the Deep by Arcadwalader Smith. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain Lessen eleven. The
Garden of the Sea. For many centuries men were puzzled
over those strange growths in the sea, corals and sponges.
Were they to be classed as animals or as vegetables?

(00:24):
It was by no means an easy question to answer. Corals,
with their pretty color and their stems and branches growing
up from the sea bed, were said to be shrubs.
But they were as hard as rock, said some people,
So how could they be vegetables. The reply to this
was that the coral became hard as soon as it
reached the air. Then, of course it was found that

(00:47):
coral was as hard under water as above it, and
the question was still unanswered. Sponges, too, were thought to
be sea plants for many many years, though some people
even said that they might must really be made of
hardened sea foam. The sponge took its place in the
vegetable kingdom, then it was moved to the animal kingdom,

(01:08):
and back again. This went on for long years. Then,
by careful watching, it was found that the sponge is
an animal. True, It is a very lowly member of
the great kingdom of animals. Yet it is one and
not a plant. Like all other animals. The sponge animal
must eat, and its way of doing so is rather strange.

(01:30):
If you look at any ordinary washing sponge, you notice
a great many very small openings and some larger ones
amongst them. It is through the smaller holes or pores
that the sponge gets its supply of food. When it
is alive and in its own home, there is a
current of water always passing through it, and the sponge

(01:51):
depends on the food which the water brings. Now, if
you could watch this water current, you would see that
it rushes into some of the holes and out of others.
It has a certain path to follow. It enters the
small pores or openings of the sponge, and goes along
narrow canals, and is then led into larger ones. Finally

(02:13):
it rushes out again through those large openings we noticed.
We may compare it with traffic coming into a city
by many narrow streets, then passing into broader ones, and
at last out again by big main roads. How does
the sponge animal cause this current and how is it
made to follow a certain path? The narrow canals of

(02:36):
the sponge are lined with flashes, or tiny hairs, so
very small that you can just see them through a microscope. Now,
the secret of the wonderful water current is a secret
no longer. As long as the sponge lives, these little
lashes are always moving, always lashing the water along in
one direction. They cause it to follow its proper core

(03:00):
through and through the sponge and out again into the sea.
On its way, it loses the tiny scraps of food
which it contains, and carries away any waste stuff out
of the sponge. You will have noticed that there are
various kinds of sponges in the market. Some are large
and flat, other small and cup shaped. Some are soft

(03:22):
and others rather hard. They are all somewhat horny and elastic.
This spongy material is the skeleton of the sponge animal,
cleaned and dried for your use. Some kinds of sponge
would tear your skin if you tried to use them,
for they have a hard skeleton. It is made of
lime and sometimes a flint, which the sponge obtains from

(03:45):
its food. Of course, we use only those sponge skeletons
which are soft, but the cheaper kinds do often contain
little flinty needles. The best washing sponges live in warm seas,
attached to the rocks on the sea. Divers go down
and obtain them, or else they are dredged up, cleaned,

(04:06):
dried and sordid, and then sent to the market. Some sponges,
called slime sponges, have no skeleton, being merely a living
mass of slime. Coral is also the hard skeleton of
a little animal known as the coral polyp. The rest
of the polyp's body is soft jelly, which many fish

(04:26):
regard as good food. The sea anemone, another jelly animal,
is first cousin to the coral polyp, and we may
call the jellyfish second cousin to these two, for it
is in the same big division of the animal kingdom.
The pretty red coral, then, is really the hard part
of the little jelly animal. This animal is much like

(04:49):
a sea anemone with a hard skeleton of lime. Coral,
as you know, looks like a solid rock. It is
really made of needles of lime fastened together into a
solid mass by the little coral polyp. Now, many of
the coral animals have the strange habit of budding, the
buds become perfect polyps, and then they too begin to bud.

(05:12):
In this way, those marvelous coral reefs and coral islands
have been made branch by branch, layer by layer, The
hard coral is built up by myriads of the small,
soft bodied creatures. This kind of polyp can live only
in warm, clear water, so it is not found in
the cold depths of the sea, nor in the seas

(05:35):
near our islands. But in the warm, shallow waters near
tropical lands. It flourishes so well that it builds up
most wonderful coral walls. So strong are they that they
can defy the terrific force of waves. Some coral reefs
are of immense size and strength. One near the coast
of Australia is nearly a thousand miles in length. These

(05:59):
marvelous works of the polyp are of great use, for
they break the force of the waves and so make
a calm shelter for vessels. The brilliant masses of coral
make a world of color in the clear seas of
the tropics, a gay garden inhabited by fishes of gaudy hues.
In dull seas, we have as a rule dull creatures

(06:21):
to match, and in bright, warm, sunny seas, the fishes
are also brightly colored. A dull fish would show up
amidst such rich colors. So it is easy to know
why coral fish wear such fine clothes. Many of them
spend all their time among the coral, their food being
the living tips of the coral branches, which they nip

(06:41):
off with fine sharp teeth. Others have teeth like millstones,
fit for crushing the hard coral and eating the fleshy
body of the polyp. Within blue, red and yellow, striped
and spotted, and of wonderful shapes are the fish which
swim in these colored gardens of the sea. Some of
them have golden bands round their bodies and fine spines

(07:04):
which wave in the water like shreds of weed, all
to help them hide in the bright, sunlit groves of coral.
Gorgeous sea anemonies of all shapes and sizes add to
the brightness, and even the shrimps, prawns, and crabs are
colored to fit their background. Crabs are always surprising us
with their queer ways and quaint dresses, and here among

(07:27):
the coral it is the same story for there are
crabs whose shelly coats are covered with colored knobs and spikes,
so that the sharpest eye cannot pick them out from
the corals on which they rest. Exercises. One How does
the sponge obtain its food? Two? What is a coral? Three?

(07:50):
How are coral reefs formed? Four? Why are there no
coral reefs in our seas? End of Lesson eleven recording
by Laura Victoria, February two thousand thirteen. End of Within
the Deep by R. Cadwalader Smith