File:Guide leaflet (1901) (14765765554).jpg

Identifier: scienceguide7692amer (find matches)
Title: Guide leaflet
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: American Museum of Natural History Natural history
Publisher: New York : The Museum
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: IMLS / LSTA / METRO

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Text Appearing Before Image:
ers spread outbeyond the white, sandy point on theinner side of the cay, mirroring in thedistance the alternating clouds and lum-inous sky colors along the horizon.Overhead, a long line of roseate flamingossails above the palm trees, the birdslazily and majestically flapping theirblack-bordered wings as they follow thedirection of the wind toward MiddleBight, an inland sea piercing the distantland-mass with its quiet waters. Glancing downward, we see that theforeground is of transparent glass simu-lating the w^ater surface, through whichpenetrate the tips of submerged elk-horncorals. We are looking into the heart of acoral reef, the treelike growths giving usglimpses of a fairy world between theirbranches. Our curiosity whetted, wenote there are descending staircases oneither hand. Down one of these we passbeneath the gallery and find ourselveslooking through a coral forest, the tangledbranches of w^hich rise above our heads.We are standing on the floor of the seal 12 NATURAL IIISrORY
Text Appearing After Image:
THE STEEL FRAMEWORK OF THE ^CORAL CAVE The heavier channel irons form the main sti-ucture and the hg;hter framework gives shape to the outline of the submerged coral cliffs, shown m nearly completed condition on the opposite page I shall leave a further description ofthis weird and strangely beautiful worlduntil the group has reached its comple-tion. At the present time we are stillstruggling with the problems of partialaccomplishment, and our imagination hasfilled in the unfinished details, as we arecontinually doing in the actual process ofpreparing the group. Let us now reviewsome of the steps which have brought itto its present stage of preparation. Let us imagine we have just returnedfrom the expedition of 1924. Our fortytons of coral have arrived. In the court-yard outside the Hall of Ocean Life arethirt\ -one huge cases of hard pine. Our men carefully removethe planks from thetops of the cases, anddisclose the soft massesof closely packed spongeclippings in which ourcorals are

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