see Jack and me creeping amongst the marine shrubbery at the
bottom, like, as - he expressed it, - "two great white sea-
monsters." During these excursions of ours to the bottom of the
sea, we began to get an insight into the manners and customs of its
inhabitants, and to make discoveries of wonderful things, the like
of which we never before conceived. Among other things, we were
deeply interested with the operations of the little coral insect
which, I was informed by Jack, is supposed to have entirely
constructed many of the numerous islands in Pacific Ocean. And,
certainly, when we considered the great reef which these insects
had formed round the island on which we were cast, and observed
their ceaseless activity in building their myriad cells, it did at
first seem as if this might be true; but then, again, when I looked
at the mountains of the island, and reflected that there were
thousands of such, many of them much higher, in the South Seas, I
doubted that there must be some mistake here. But more of this
hereafter.

I also became much taken up with the manners and appearance of the
anemones, and star-fish, and crabs, and sea-urchins, and such-like
creatures; and was not content with watching those I saw during my
dives in the Water Garden, but I must needs scoop out a hole in the
coral rock close to it, which I filled with salt water, and stocked
with sundry specimens of anemones and shell-fish, in order to watch
more closely how they were in the habit of passing their time. Our
burning-glass also now became a great treasure to me, as it enabled
me to magnify, and so to perceive more clearly the forms and
actions of these curious creatures of the deep.

Having now got ourselves into a very comfortable condition, we