The eyes of certain fish placed at the end of jaw bones separated from the body, sparkle like diamonds in the ends of a double pin.

The protruding glands, the warts, the curving backs, take on the colorings of jewelry.
But the precious stones of earth are dead minerals that need rays of light in order to emit the slightest flash.

The animated gems of the ocean--fishes and corals--sparkle with their own colors that are a reflex of their vitality.

Their green, their rose color, their intense yellow, their metallic iridescence, all their liquid tints are eternally glazed by a moist varnish which cannot exist in the atmospheric world.
Some of these beings are capable of a marvelous power of mimicry that makes them identify themselves with inanimate objects, or in a few moments run through every gamut of color.

Some of great nervous activity, make themselves absolutely immovable and contract, filling themselves with wrinkles, taking on the dark tone of the rocks.