y, only that the coral polyp has a stony skeleton and most of the sea
anemones have not. But every different one has some sort of a story to
tell and I believe they get joy out of life just as we do. Else why
should some of these forms be so beautiful? You note them closely when
we pass over some of the reefs, and I should judge we are coming to them
now."

Certainly if the coloration was any clue, the boat was coming to the
great sea-gardens. Above the white bottom the water shone a vivid
emeraldine green, changing to sharply marked browns over the shoals,
while beyond the inner reefs it varied from all shades of sapphire blue
to radiant aquamarine. Nowhere was the water of the same color for a
hundred yards together, while every ruffling of the surface, every slant
of sunlight gave it a new hue. Colin was entranced and wished to see
more closely, but the boat was going too swiftly to let down a water
glass and he was forced to wait a few minutes.

"Ah b'lieve, sah," said Early Bird presently, hauling in the sheet, "we
might let the sail down heah. We'll drift just about fast enough fo' you
to watch the bottom."

Mr. Collier handed one of the water glasses to the boatman. It was
formed like a deep square box with a glass window for a bottom, and a
specially prepared crystal had been used.

"That's an improvement on the old kind, Early Bird," he said; "what do
you think of it?"

The Bermudian darky looked through the glass critically.

"Yes, sah," he said, "thar's no compah'son 'tween the two. The bottom
looks bettah through that glass than it does when yo' down theh
yo'self. Ah used to do a little diving at one time, but the reefs nevah
showed up that cleah. It would be a big thing fo' the boats that take
tourists out if they could have glasses like that one there."

"It would be, perhaps," the scientist said, laughing, "but they could
almost build a boat for what one of these would cost."

"Isn't that the most gorgeous thing you ever saw!" cried Colin, as he
set his eye to the glass, which Early Bird handed him. "There's no
garden on land with such colors as that."

"There are no flowers in the garden you're looking at, remember," his
friend reminded him.

"Don't need them," said the boy. "Look at that tall purple plant waving
to and fro. Isn't that a sea-fan?"

"Yes," his companion answered, "that's a sea-fan, but it isn't a plant.
It's a kind of coral."

"Is it? I always thought it was a seaweed."