Coral is also the hard skeleton of a little animal, known as the Coral Polyp.

The coral is a sort of animal.

The Corals which form the Reef are not the only beings that find their home there: many other animalsShells, Worms, Crabs, Star-Fishes, Sea-Urchinsestablish themselves upon it, work their way into its interstices, and seek a shelter in every little hole and cranny made by the irregularities of its surface.

But the coral is not all white, only indeed a little of it; for as you look down through the clear water, you find that the coral is starred with innumerable live flowers, blue, crimson, grey, every conceivable hue; and that these are the coral polypes, each with its ring of arms thrust out of its cell, who are building up their common habitations of lime.

It is one of the curious, mysterious things of the ocean about which Folks have written and studied, and the wise ones say that coral is neither insect nor fish, but a kind of sea-animal, that lives in both deep and shallow waters.